* config/tc-h8300.c (get_operand): Fix typos in ldm/stm support.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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95618211
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
dfbb701a 4*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
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5
6* New native configurations
7
e3147bf2 8Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
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9Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
10Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
e3147bf2 11PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
dfbb701a 12PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
e3147bf2 13Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
32e3c8b8 14Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
9391c997 15
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16* New targets
17
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18Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
19Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
20Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
21Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
22MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
23MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
24MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
25Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
26Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
27Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
28NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
29
30* New debugging protocols
31
32ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4db54939 33M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
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34DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
35PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
36PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
37Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
38
39* DWARF 2
40
41All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
42format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
43information.
44
6e8bee16 45start-sanitize-java
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46* Java frontend
47
48GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
49only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
50
6e8bee16 51end-sanitize-java
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52* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
53
54For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
55loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
56locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
57
58* Live range splitting
59
60GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
61range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
62more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
63
64* Hurd support
65
66GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
67updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
68
69* ARM Thumb support
70
71GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
72instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
73instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
74accordingly.
75
76* MIPS16 support
77
78GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
79instruction set.
80
81* Overlay support
82
83GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
84linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
85will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
86control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
87additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
88in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
89
90* info symbol
91
92The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
93the symbol at the specified address.
94
95* Trace support
96
97The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
98asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
99extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
100includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
101file tracepoint.c for more details.
102
103* MIPS simulator
104
105Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
106by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
107of most MIPS variants.
108
109* Sparc simulator
110
111Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
112by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
113Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
114
115* set architecture
116
117For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
118basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
119architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
120the possible architectures.
4db54939 121
a0e1eb42 122*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2ad5709f 123
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124* New native configurations
125
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126Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
127M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
128PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
129PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
130PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
131RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
bf4e0fe7 132
972821a3 133* New targets
bf4e0fe7 134
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135ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
136I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
137MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
138MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
139PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
140Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
141Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
142
143* PowerPC simulator
144
145The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
146contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
147PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
148basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
149performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
150
151* Solaris 2.5
152
153GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
154
155* Windows 95/NT native
156
157GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
158To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
159which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
160Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
161ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
162
163* dont-repeat command
164
165If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
166command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
167useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
168extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
bf4e0fe7 169
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170* Send break instead of ^C
171
172The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
173rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
174GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
175
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176* Remote protocol timeout
177
178The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
179that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
180to read from the target. The default value is 2.
181
182* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
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183
184By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
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185loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
186stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
187when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
188in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
189
190Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
191/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
192automatically on hpux10.
193
194* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
195
196Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
197
198* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
87273c71 199
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200When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
201may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
202the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
203every character. The default value is 1050.
87273c71 204
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205* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
206
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207If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
208a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
209replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
210details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
211remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
212to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
213
214* Speedups for remote debugging
215
216GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
217the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
218and more efficient S-record downloading.
219
220* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
221
222GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
223Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
e8f1ad9a 224
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225*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
226
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227* Psymtabs for XCOFF
228
229The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
230can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
231
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232* Remote targets use caching
233
234Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
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235remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
236it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
237debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
238off' turns the the data cache off.
0764fb04 239
bf4e0fe7 240* Remote targets may have threads
24e60978 241
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242The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
243in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
244gdb/remote.c for details.
24e60978 245
bf4e0fe7 246* NetROM support
24e60978 247
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248If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
249support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
250acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
251write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
252support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
253another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
254sequence is something like
255
256 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
257 load <prog>
258 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
259
260* Macintosh host
261
262GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
263may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
264it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
265available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
266device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
267directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
268scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
269mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
270
271* Autoconf
272
273GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
274but does simplify configuration and building.
275
276* hpux10
277
cd857a2d 278GDB now supports hpux10.
24e60978 279
95618211
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280*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
281
282* New native configurations
283
284x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
285x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
286NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
287Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
288
289* New targets
290
291A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
292HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
293CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
294PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
295WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3ddcdc59 296
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297* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
298
299GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
300possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
301filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
302the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
303if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
304
95618211
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305* Arguments to user-defined commands
306
307User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
308Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
309trivial example:
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310define adder
311 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
312
313To execute the command use:
314adder 1 2 3
315
316Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
317Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
318use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
319
95618211
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320* New `if' and `while' commands
321
322This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
323commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
324expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
325execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
326terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
327`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
328if the expression is zero.
329
330* Fortran source language mode
331
332GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
333Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
334variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
335with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
336Fortran compilers.
337
338* Better HPUX support
339
340Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
341running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
342processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
343for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
344that behavior do the following before running the program:
345
346 adb -w a.out
347 __dld_flags?W 0x5
348 control-d
349
350This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
351To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
352
353 adb -w a.out
354 __dld_flags?W 0x4
355 control-d
356
357You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
358the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
359external linkage.
360
361GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
362HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
363
364* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
365
366You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
367commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
368current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
369"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
370associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
371configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
7de5c5e2 372
95618211 373* New DOS host serial code
e3581971 374
95618211
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375This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
376no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
377a PC's serial port.
2848f793 378
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379*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
380
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381* New "complete" command
382
383This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
384were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
72e35288 385
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386* Trailing space optional in prompt
387
388"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
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389allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
390
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391* Breakpoint hit counts
392
393"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
394has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
395can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
396to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
397less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
398that breakpoint.
399
400* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
401
402"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
403an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
404arrays actually contain only short strings.
405
406* Shared library breakpoints
407
408In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
409breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
410
411* Hardware watchpoints
412
413There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
414targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
415
416Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
417
418* Annotations
419
420Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
421and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
422
423* Improved Irix 5 support
424
425GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
426
427* Improved HPPA support
428
429GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
430
431* New native configurations
432
433Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
434HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
435Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
436RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
437
438* New targets
439
440OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
441MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
442Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
443
444* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
445
446There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
447This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
448
449* Fixes
450
451As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
452and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
453
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454*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
455
456* Irix 5 is now supported
457
458* HPPA support
459
460GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
461to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
462GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
463of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
464can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
465
466
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467*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
468
469* User visible changes:
470
471* Remote Debugging
803f7af5 472
41a6194d 473The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
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474target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
475debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
476integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
477debugging info for the mips target).
41a6194d 478
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479* DEC Alpha native support
480
481GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
482debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
483work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
484Alpha-specific notes.
485
486* Preliminary thread implementation
487
488GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
489
490* LynxOS native and target support for 386
491
492This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
493to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
494for details).
495
496* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
497
498This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
499mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
500call methods, ...etc.
501
41a6194d 502*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
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503
504 * User visible changes:
505
5b336d29 506Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
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507supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
508other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
509somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5b336d29 510
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511Filename completion now works.
512
513When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
514arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
be9af13c 515addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
a32ebcfd 516
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517All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
518vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
519should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
520your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
521to be on the far side of a thin network line.
522
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523 * DEC alpha support
524
525This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
526cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
527
528
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529*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
530
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531 * Testsuite
532
533This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
534The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
535via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
536
537 * C++ demangling
538
45364c8a 539'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
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540emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
541Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
542disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
543use gdb with AT&T cfront.
45364c8a 544
c787ca55 545 * Simulators
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546
547GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
548So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
549Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
550
551 * New targets supported
552
553H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
554H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
555SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
556Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
8b946797 557IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
8ae56378 558
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559Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
560version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
0a4a0f09 561GO32 memory extender.
cb46c402 562
0a4a0f09 563 * New remote protocols
cb46c402 564
0a4a0f09 565MIPS remote debugging protocol.
cb46c402 566
0a4a0f09 567 * New source languages supported
cb46c402 568
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569This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
570used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
571into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
cb46c402 572
cb46c402 573
c5cc95b1
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574*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
575
3421ec35 576 * HP Precision Architecture supported
c5cc95b1 577
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578GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
579version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
580University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
581compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6d0380ee 582format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3421ec35 583(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
c5cc95b1 584
3421ec35 585Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
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586
587 * Faster and better demangling
588
589We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
590demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
591character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
592only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
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593This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
594increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
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595symbol lookups.
596
597`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
598from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
599compiler does not actually implement.
600
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601 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
602
603In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
604inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
605recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
606very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
607The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
608circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
609fix.
610
611The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
612release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
613
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614 * Improved configure script
615
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616The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
617you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
618host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
619done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
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620
621We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
622version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
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623`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
624The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
625only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
626We hope to make this the default in a future release.
627
628 * Documentation improvements
629
630There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
631produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
632before submitting changes.
633
634The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
635M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
636`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
637you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
638a future texinfo-X.Y release.
639
640*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
641We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
642been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
643or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
644`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
645around this problem.
c5cc95b1 646
3421ec35 647 * New features
c5cc95b1 648
3421ec35
JG
649GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
650the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
651`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
652the target program.
c5cc95b1 653
3421ec35
JG
654The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
655how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
c5cc95b1
SG
656
657 * New native hosts supported
658
659HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
c5cc95b1
SG
660386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
661
662 * New targets supported
663
664AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
665
666 * New file formats supported
667
3421ec35
JG
668BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
669HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
670
671 * Major bug fixes
672
673Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
674
675We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
676printf_filtered("%s") problems.
677
678We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
679for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
680release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
681
682You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
683will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
684
685We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
686for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
687especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
688libraries.
c5cc95b1 689
3421ec35
JG
690The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
691information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
692command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
693any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
694when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
695
696 * Internal improvements
697
698GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
699debugging of multiple languages in the future.
700
701GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
702Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
703symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
704contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
705shared code that handles any of them.
706
707 * New command line options
c5cc95b1
SG
708
709We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
710
3421ec35 711 * Mmalloc licensing
c5cc95b1 712
3421ec35
JG
713The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
714General Public License.
c5cc95b1 715
76ba9b5b
SG
716*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
717
c00d8242
JG
718 * Host/native/target split
719
720GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
721hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
722target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
723local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
724ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
725
726The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
727GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
728is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
729code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
730any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
731built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
732handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
733
734GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
735It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
736plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
737
738 * New hosts supported
739
740HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
741386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
742386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
743
744 * New targets supported
76ba9b5b 745
c00d8242
JG
746Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
74768030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5f5be54c 748
c00d8242 749 * New native hosts supported
5f5be54c 750
c00d8242
JG
751386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
752 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
753386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5f5be54c 754
c00d8242 755 * New file formats supported
5f5be54c 756
c00d8242
JG
757BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
758supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
759format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5f5be54c 760
c00d8242 761 * New commands
5f5be54c 762
c00d8242
JG
763`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
764`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
765These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5f5be54c 766
c00d8242 767`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5f5be54c 768
c00d8242
JG
769You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
770scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
771prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
772executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
773
774 * C++ improvements
775
776We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
777info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
778symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
779
780Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5f5be54c
SG
781
782 * Major bug fixes
783
c00d8242
JG
784The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
785fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
786by the compiler.
5f5be54c 787
c00d8242
JG
788We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
789support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
790
791John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
792slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
793that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
794purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
795the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
796mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
797
798Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
799about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
800completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
801we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
802
803 * AMD 29k support
5f5be54c 804
c00d8242
JG
805A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
806specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
807calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
808usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
809in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
810
811We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
812Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
813of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
814resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
815
816 * Remote interfaces
817
818We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
819with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
820message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
821This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
822needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
823breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
824each instruction being stepped through.
825
826The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
827registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
828
829There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
830find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
831Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
832processor with a serial port.
833
834 * Configuration
835
836Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
837`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
838supported, and what files each one uses.
839
840 * Library changes
841
842There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
843disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
844Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
845disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
846
847The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
848Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
849can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
850grants all the rights from the General Public License.
851
852 * Documentation
853
854The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
855reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
856as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
857encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
858system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
859bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5f5be54c
SG
860
861And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
76ba9b5b 862
c00d8242 863
3ddcdc59
SG
864*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
865
866 * Better support for C++ function names
867
868GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
869names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
870(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
871single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
872Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
873
874GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
875the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
876You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
877lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
878for the list of formats.
879
880 * G++ symbol mangling problem
881
882Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
883C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
884directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
885can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
886usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
887about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
888this problem.)
889
890 * New 'maintenance' command
891
892All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
893the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
894can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
895
896 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
897 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
898 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
899 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
900 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
901 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
902
903The following commands are new:
904
905 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
906 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
907 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
908
909 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
910
911We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
912(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
913be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
914read after argv processing.
915
916 * New hosts supported
917
918Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
919
920Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
921
922We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
923is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
924for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
925masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
926fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
927It costs extra.
928
929 * New targets supported
930
931Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
932
933 * More smarts about finding #include files
934
935GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
936all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
937greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
938especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
939the one that contains your sources.
940
941We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
942breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
943try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
944
945 * Interesting infernals change
946
947GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
948section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
949target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
950stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
951
952 * Bug fixes (of course!)
953
954There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
955 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
956 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
957
958See the ChangeLog for details.
959
960*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
961
962 * New machines supported (host and target)
963
964IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
965
966SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
967
968 * New malloc package
969
970GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
971Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
972capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
973This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
974pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
975more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
976
977 * info proc
978
979The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
980'help info proc' for details.
981
982 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
983
984The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
985Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
986possible.
987
988 * File name changes for MS-DOS
989
990Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
991support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
992conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
993environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
994that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
995in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
996
997 * Cross byte order fixes
998
999Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1000targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1001
1002 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1003
1004If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1005system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1006`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1007program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1008called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1009Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1010and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1011the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1012option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1013starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1014
1015You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1016the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1017information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1018slower, but makes future operations faster.
1019
1020The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1021build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1022A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1023use is:
1024
1025 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1026
1027The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1028It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1029shared across multiple host platforms.
1030
1031 * longjmp() handling
1032
1033GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1034siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1035all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1036platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1037
1038 * Solaris 2.0
1039
1040Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1041this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1042reading symbols.
1043
1044 * Bug fixes
1045
1046As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1047People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1048crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1049
1050*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1051
1052 * New machines supported (host and target)
1053
1054SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1055 (except core files)
1056BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1057Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1058
1059 * New machines supported (target)
1060
1061AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1062
1063 * C++ support
1064
1065GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1066The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1067per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1068
1069GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1070`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1071extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1072good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1073will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1074released.
1075
1076 * New features for SVR4
1077
1078GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1079shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1080only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1081
1082The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1083on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1084it prints the address mappings of the process.
1085
1086If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1087bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1088
1089 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1090
1091Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1092now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1093skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1094make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1095same code linked statically.
1096
1097 * New Getopt
1098
1099GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1100version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1101continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1102Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1103added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1104future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1105
1106 * Bugs fixed
1107
1108The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1109Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1110See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1111
1112
1113*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1114
1115 * New machines supported (host and target)
1116
1117Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1118NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1119Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1120
1121 * Almost SCO Unix support
1122
1123We had hoped to support:
1124SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1125(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1126that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1127about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1128
1129 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1130
1131GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1132debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1133is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1134send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1135reqired (if any).
1136
1137 * New Readline
1138
1139GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1140is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1141required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1142
1143 * Bugs fixed
1144
1145The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1146Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1147See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1148
1149 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1150
1151GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1152supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1153symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1154
1155Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1156mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1157debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1158mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1159version 2.
1160
1161Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1162really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1163line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1164variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1165situation somewhat.
1166
1167When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1168However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1169methods.
1170
1171We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1172DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1173encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1174
1175
1176*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1177
1178 * Improved configuration
1179
1180Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1181Porting BFD is simpler.
1182
1183 * Stepping improved
1184
1185The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1186of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1187in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1188function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1189
1190 * Bug fixing
1191
1192Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1193
1194 * New host supported (not target)
1195
1196Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1197
1198
1199*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1200
1201 * Multiple source language support
1202
1203GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1204It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1205and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1206language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1207You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1208`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1209
1210 * GDB and Modula-2
1211
1212GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1213currently under development at the State University of New York at
1214Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1215continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1216
1217Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1218debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1219symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1220
1221There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1222in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1223
1224 * set write on/off
1225
1226GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1227a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1228the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1229by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1230effect immediately.
1231
1232 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1233
1234When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1235shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1236The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1237examining core files.
1238
1239 * set listsize
1240
1241You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1242The default is 10.
1243
1244 * New machines supported (host and target)
1245
1246SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1247Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1248Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1249
1250 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1251
1252IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1253
1254 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1255
1256AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1257AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1258Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1259
1260 * New remote interfaces
1261
1262AMD 29000 Adapt
1263AMD 29000 Minimon
1264
1265
1266*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1267
1268 * New Facilities
1269
1270Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1271
1272Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1273target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1274is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1275remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1276remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1277also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1278using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1279stub on the target system.
1280
1281New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1282
1283GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1284library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1285object file types such as a.out and coff.
1286
1287There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1288refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1289
1290
1291 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1292
1293All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1294by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1295
1296For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1297``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1298Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1299
1300What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1301print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1302will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1303all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1304
1305confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1306 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1307 it is already running. Default is ON.
1308
1309editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1310 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1311 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1312 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1313 Default is ON.
1314
1315history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1316 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1317 or the value of the environment variable
1318 GDBHISTFILE.
1319
1320history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1321 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1322 HISTSIZE.
1323
1324history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1325 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1326 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1327
1328history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1329 history expansion will be performed on
1330 command line input. The default is OFF.
1331
1332radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1333 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1334 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1335
1336height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1337 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1338 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1339 variable TERM.
1340
1341width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1342 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1343 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1344 variable TERM.
1345
1346Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1347``set width'' instead.
1348
1349print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1350 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1351 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1352 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1353
1354print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1355 is OFF.
1356
1357print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1358 "raw" form if off.
1359
1360print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1361 like instructions.
1362
1363print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1364
1365
1366 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1367
1368The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1369new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1370are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1371window.
1372
1373
1374 * Support for Shared Libraries
1375
1376GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1377Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1378before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1379happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1380At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1381from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1382shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1383It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1384
1385sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1386 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1387 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1388
1389info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1390
1391
1392 * Watchpoints
1393
1394A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1395expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1396tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1397quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1398problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1399more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1400
1401watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1402
1403info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1404
1405delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1406disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1407enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1408
1409
1410 * C++ multiple inheritance
1411
1412When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1413for C++ programs.
1414
1415 * C++ exception handling
1416
1417Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1418ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1419the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1420handler's context).
1421
1422catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1423 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1424 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1425
1426info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1427 current stack frame.
1428
1429
1430 * Minor command changes
1431
1432The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1433command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1434is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1435
1436The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1437at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1438frames without printing.
1439
1440 * New directory command
1441
1442'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1443The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1444about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1445with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1446find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1447
1448 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1449
1450For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1451for more details.
1452
1453GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1454two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1455Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1456where the program that you are debugging will run.
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