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3ddcdc59 SG |
1 | What has changed since GDB-3.5? |
2 | (Organized release by release) | |
3 | ||
21cc14d8 RP |
4 | *** Changes in GDB-???: |
5 | ||
6 | * User visible changes: | |
7 | ||
8 | All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called | |
9 | vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb | |
10 | should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if | |
11 | your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens | |
12 | to be on the far side of a thin network line. | |
13 | ||
cb46c402 JG |
14 | *** Changes in GDB-4.9: |
15 | ||
c787ca55 FF |
16 | * Testsuite |
17 | ||
18 | This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite. | |
19 | The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available | |
20 | via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software. | |
21 | ||
22 | * C++ demangling | |
23 | ||
45364c8a | 24 | 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to |
0a4a0f09 FF |
25 | emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated |
26 | Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite | |
27 | disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to | |
28 | use gdb with AT&T cfront. | |
45364c8a | 29 | |
c787ca55 | 30 | * Simulators |
8ae56378 SC |
31 | |
32 | GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library. | |
33 | So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the | |
34 | Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H. | |
35 | ||
36 | * New targets supported | |
37 | ||
38 | H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms | |
39 | H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms | |
40 | SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh | |
41 | Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim | |
8b946797 | 42 | IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff |
8ae56378 | 43 | |
cb46c402 JG |
44 | Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom |
45 | version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the | |
0a4a0f09 | 46 | GO32 memory extender. |
cb46c402 | 47 | |
0a4a0f09 | 48 | * New remote protocols |
cb46c402 | 49 | |
0a4a0f09 | 50 | MIPS remote debugging protocol. |
cb46c402 | 51 | |
0a4a0f09 | 52 | * New source languages supported |
cb46c402 | 53 | |
0a4a0f09 FF |
54 | This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language |
55 | used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated | |
56 | into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available. | |
cb46c402 | 57 | |
cb46c402 | 58 | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
59 | *** Changes in GDB-4.8: |
60 | ||
3421ec35 | 61 | * HP Precision Architecture supported |
c5cc95b1 | 62 | |
3421ec35 JG |
63 | GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary |
64 | version of this support was available as a set of patches from the | |
65 | University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs | |
66 | compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file | |
6d0380ee | 67 | format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS |
3421ec35 | 68 | (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z). |
c5cc95b1 | 69 | |
3421ec35 | 70 | Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed. |
c5cc95b1 SG |
71 | |
72 | * Faster and better demangling | |
73 | ||
74 | We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style | |
75 | demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide | |
76 | character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now | |
77 | only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in. | |
3421ec35 JG |
78 | This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate |
79 | increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
80 | symbol lookups. |
81 | ||
82 | `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written | |
83 | from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's | |
84 | compiler does not actually implement. | |
85 | ||
6d0380ee JG |
86 | * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem |
87 | ||
88 | In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple | |
89 | inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We | |
90 | recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a | |
91 | very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes. | |
92 | The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to | |
93 | circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete | |
94 | fix. | |
95 | ||
96 | The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7 | |
97 | release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2. | |
98 | ||
c5cc95b1 SG |
99 | * Improved configure script |
100 | ||
3421ec35 JG |
101 | The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if |
102 | you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a | |
103 | host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is | |
104 | done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details. | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
105 | |
106 | We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's | |
107 | version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular, | |
3421ec35 JG |
108 | `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller. |
109 | The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats -- | |
110 | only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system. | |
111 | We hope to make this the default in a future release. | |
112 | ||
113 | * Documentation improvements | |
114 | ||
115 | There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to | |
116 | produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it | |
117 | before submitting changes. | |
118 | ||
119 | The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane | |
120 | M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built | |
121 | `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch, | |
122 | you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in | |
123 | a future texinfo-X.Y release. | |
124 | ||
125 | *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang. | |
126 | We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has | |
127 | been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141 | |
128 | or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in | |
129 | `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work | |
130 | around this problem. | |
c5cc95b1 | 131 | |
3421ec35 | 132 | * New features |
c5cc95b1 | 133 | |
3421ec35 JG |
134 | GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by |
135 | the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type | |
136 | `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in | |
137 | the target program. | |
c5cc95b1 | 138 | |
3421ec35 JG |
139 | The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates |
140 | how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor. | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
141 | |
142 | * New native hosts supported | |
143 | ||
144 | HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
145 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4 |
146 | ||
147 | * New targets supported | |
148 | ||
149 | AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k | |
150 | ||
151 | * New file formats supported | |
152 | ||
3421ec35 JG |
153 | BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?), |
154 | HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files. | |
155 | ||
156 | * Major bug fixes | |
157 | ||
158 | Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports. | |
159 | ||
160 | We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by | |
161 | printf_filtered("%s") problems. | |
162 | ||
163 | We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files | |
164 | for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7 | |
165 | release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB. | |
166 | ||
167 | You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This | |
168 | will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB. | |
169 | ||
170 | We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors | |
171 | for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was | |
172 | especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared | |
173 | libraries. | |
c5cc95b1 | 174 | |
3421ec35 JG |
175 | The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number |
176 | information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next' | |
177 | command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was | |
178 | any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems | |
179 | when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines. | |
180 | ||
181 | * Internal improvements | |
182 | ||
183 | GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support | |
184 | debugging of multiple languages in the future. | |
185 | ||
186 | GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally. | |
187 | Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial | |
188 | symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols | |
189 | contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write | |
190 | shared code that handles any of them. | |
191 | ||
192 | * New command line options | |
c5cc95b1 SG |
193 | |
194 | We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet. | |
195 | ||
3421ec35 | 196 | * Mmalloc licensing |
c5cc95b1 | 197 | |
3421ec35 JG |
198 | The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library |
199 | General Public License. | |
c5cc95b1 | 200 | |
76ba9b5b SG |
201 | *** Changes in GDB-4.7: |
202 | ||
c00d8242 JG |
203 | * Host/native/target split |
204 | ||
205 | GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for | |
206 | hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote | |
207 | target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging | |
208 | local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will | |
209 | ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible. | |
210 | ||
211 | The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in | |
212 | GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB | |
213 | is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific | |
214 | code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on | |
215 | any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be | |
216 | built when the host and target are the same system. Child process | |
217 | handling and core file support are two common `native' examples. | |
218 | ||
219 | GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner. | |
220 | It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector, | |
221 | plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc. | |
222 | ||
223 | * New hosts supported | |
224 | ||
225 | HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd | |
226 | 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd | |
227 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco | |
228 | ||
229 | * New targets supported | |
76ba9b5b | 230 | |
c00d8242 JG |
231 | Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite |
232 | 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-* | |
5f5be54c | 233 | |
c00d8242 | 234 | * New native hosts supported |
5f5be54c | 235 | |
c00d8242 JG |
236 | 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd |
237 | (386bsd is not well tested yet) | |
238 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco | |
5f5be54c | 239 | |
c00d8242 | 240 | * New file formats supported |
5f5be54c | 241 | |
c00d8242 JG |
242 | BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It |
243 | supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out | |
244 | format extended with minimal information about multiple sections. | |
5f5be54c | 245 | |
c00d8242 | 246 | * New commands |
5f5be54c | 247 | |
c00d8242 JG |
248 | `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'. |
249 | `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'. | |
250 | These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work. | |
5f5be54c | 251 | |
c00d8242 | 252 | `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'. |
5f5be54c | 253 | |
c00d8242 JG |
254 | You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command |
255 | scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed | |
256 | prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be | |
257 | executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo. | |
258 | ||
259 | * C++ improvements | |
260 | ||
261 | We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type | |
262 | info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which | |
263 | symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses. | |
264 | ||
265 | Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well. | |
5f5be54c SG |
266 | |
267 | * Major bug fixes | |
268 | ||
c00d8242 JG |
269 | The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is |
270 | fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output | |
271 | by the compiler. | |
5f5be54c | 272 | |
c00d8242 JG |
273 | We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file |
274 | support, with help from a dozen people on the net. | |
275 | ||
276 | John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so | |
277 | slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was | |
278 | that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal | |
279 | purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing | |
280 | the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++ | |
281 | mangled symbol sped things up a great deal. | |
282 | ||
283 | Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter | |
284 | about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol | |
285 | completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as | |
286 | we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6. | |
287 | ||
288 | * AMD 29k support | |
5f5be54c | 289 | |
c00d8242 JG |
290 | A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can |
291 | specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB | |
292 | calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the | |
293 | usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work | |
294 | in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces. | |
295 | ||
296 | We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger | |
297 | Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all | |
298 | of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to | |
299 | resolve this, and hope to have it available soon. | |
300 | ||
301 | * Remote interfaces | |
302 | ||
303 | We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets | |
304 | with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T') | |
305 | message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message. | |
306 | This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB | |
307 | needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional | |
308 | breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for | |
309 | each instruction being stepped through. | |
310 | ||
311 | The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for | |
312 | registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run. | |
313 | ||
314 | There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can | |
315 | find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the | |
316 | Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC | |
317 | processor with a serial port. | |
318 | ||
319 | * Configuration | |
320 | ||
321 | Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new | |
322 | `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are | |
323 | supported, and what files each one uses. | |
324 | ||
325 | * Library changes | |
326 | ||
327 | There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the | |
328 | disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains | |
329 | Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and | |
330 | disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines. | |
331 | ||
332 | The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General | |
333 | Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++ | |
334 | can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License | |
335 | grants all the rights from the General Public License. | |
336 | ||
337 | * Documentation | |
338 | ||
339 | The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete | |
340 | reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far | |
341 | as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We | |
342 | encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your | |
343 | system, and send improvements on the document in general (to | |
344 | bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu). | |
5f5be54c SG |
345 | |
346 | And, of course, many bugs have been fixed. | |
76ba9b5b | 347 | |
c00d8242 | 348 | |
3ddcdc59 SG |
349 | *** Changes in GDB-4.6: |
350 | ||
351 | * Better support for C++ function names | |
352 | ||
353 | GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function | |
354 | names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names | |
355 | (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of | |
356 | single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'. | |
357 | Make use of command completion, it is your friend. | |
358 | ||
359 | GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are | |
360 | the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style. | |
361 | You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu, | |
362 | lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo' | |
363 | for the list of formats. | |
364 | ||
365 | * G++ symbol mangling problem | |
366 | ||
367 | Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for | |
368 | C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this | |
369 | directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you | |
370 | can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The | |
371 | usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains | |
372 | about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has | |
373 | this problem.) | |
374 | ||
375 | * New 'maintenance' command | |
376 | ||
377 | All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of | |
378 | the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This | |
379 | can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made: | |
380 | ||
381 | dump-me -> maintenance dump-me | |
382 | info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints | |
383 | printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms | |
384 | printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles | |
385 | printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols | |
386 | printsyms -> maintenance print symbols | |
387 | ||
388 | The following commands are new: | |
389 | ||
390 | maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to | |
391 | demangle a C++ link name and prints the result. | |
392 | maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol | |
393 | ||
394 | * Change to .gdbinit file processing | |
395 | ||
396 | We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments | |
397 | (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to | |
398 | be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still | |
399 | read after argv processing. | |
400 | ||
401 | * New hosts supported | |
402 | ||
403 | Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2 | |
404 | ||
405 | Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux | |
406 | ||
407 | We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This | |
408 | is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it | |
409 | for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or | |
410 | masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the | |
411 | fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option. | |
412 | It costs extra. | |
413 | ||
414 | * New targets supported | |
415 | ||
416 | Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms | |
417 | ||
418 | * More smarts about finding #include files | |
419 | ||
420 | GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for | |
421 | all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This | |
422 | greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files, | |
423 | especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from | |
424 | the one that contains your sources. | |
425 | ||
426 | We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting | |
427 | breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to | |
428 | try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.) | |
429 | ||
430 | * Interesting infernals change | |
431 | ||
432 | GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each | |
433 | section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the | |
434 | target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded | |
435 | stabs used by Solaris-2.0. | |
436 | ||
437 | * Bug fixes (of course!) | |
438 | ||
439 | There have been loads of fixes for the following things: | |
440 | mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k, | |
441 | i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc... | |
442 | ||
443 | See the ChangeLog for details. | |
444 | ||
445 | *** Changes in GDB-4.5: | |
446 | ||
447 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
448 | ||
449 | IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000 | |
450 | ||
451 | SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4 | |
452 | ||
453 | * New malloc package | |
454 | ||
455 | GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc. | |
456 | Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also | |
457 | capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later. | |
458 | This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a | |
459 | pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For | |
460 | more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi. | |
461 | ||
462 | * info proc | |
463 | ||
464 | The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See | |
465 | 'help info proc' for details. | |
466 | ||
467 | * MIPS ecoff symbol table format | |
468 | ||
469 | The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts. | |
470 | Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this | |
471 | possible. | |
472 | ||
473 | * File name changes for MS-DOS | |
474 | ||
475 | Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to | |
476 | support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name | |
477 | conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32 | |
478 | environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note | |
479 | that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations | |
480 | in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging. | |
481 | ||
482 | * Cross byte order fixes | |
483 | ||
484 | Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS | |
485 | targets from hosts whose byte order differs. | |
486 | ||
487 | * New -mapped and -readnow options | |
488 | ||
489 | If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap' | |
490 | system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or | |
491 | `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your | |
492 | program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is | |
493 | called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'. | |
494 | Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file, | |
495 | and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading | |
496 | the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped' | |
497 | option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as | |
498 | starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option. | |
499 | ||
500 | You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using | |
501 | the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table | |
502 | information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command | |
503 | slower, but makes future operations faster. | |
504 | ||
505 | The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to | |
506 | build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information. | |
507 | A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future | |
508 | use is: | |
509 | ||
510 | gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname | |
511 | ||
512 | The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run. | |
513 | It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be | |
514 | shared across multiple host platforms. | |
515 | ||
516 | * longjmp() handling | |
517 | ||
518 | GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and | |
519 | siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to | |
520 | all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based | |
521 | platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4. | |
522 | ||
523 | * Solaris 2.0 | |
524 | ||
525 | Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At | |
526 | this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of | |
527 | reading symbols. | |
528 | ||
529 | * Bug fixes | |
530 | ||
531 | As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread. | |
532 | People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious | |
533 | crashes and trashed symbol tables. | |
534 | ||
535 | *** Changes in GDB-4.4: | |
536 | ||
537 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
538 | ||
539 | SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco | |
540 | (except core files) | |
541 | BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd | |
542 | Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix | |
543 | ||
544 | * New machines supported (target) | |
545 | ||
546 | AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none | |
547 | ||
548 | * C++ support | |
549 | ||
550 | GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better. | |
551 | The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as | |
552 | per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide. | |
553 | ||
554 | GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS | |
555 | `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily | |
556 | extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a | |
557 | good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option | |
558 | will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is | |
559 | released. | |
560 | ||
561 | * New features for SVR4 | |
562 | ||
563 | GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS | |
564 | shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present | |
565 | only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs. | |
566 | ||
567 | The `info proc' command will print out information about any process | |
568 | on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment, | |
569 | it prints the address mappings of the process. | |
570 | ||
571 | If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to | |
572 | bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any). | |
573 | ||
574 | * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS | |
575 | ||
576 | Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols | |
577 | now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic | |
578 | skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which | |
579 | make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the | |
580 | same code linked statically. | |
581 | ||
582 | * New Getopt | |
583 | ||
584 | GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This | |
585 | version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will | |
586 | continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well. | |
587 | Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity | |
588 | added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the | |
589 | future by other options that begin with the same letter. | |
590 | ||
591 | * Bugs fixed | |
592 | ||
593 | The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed. | |
594 | Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled. | |
595 | See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details. | |
596 | ||
597 | ||
598 | *** Changes in GDB-4.3: | |
599 | ||
600 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
601 | ||
602 | Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix | |
603 | NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000 | |
604 | Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88 | |
605 | ||
606 | * Almost SCO Unix support | |
607 | ||
608 | We had hoped to support: | |
609 | SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco | |
610 | (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release | |
611 | that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry | |
612 | about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes. | |
613 | ||
614 | * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support | |
615 | ||
616 | GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle | |
617 | debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support | |
618 | is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please | |
619 | send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were | |
620 | reqired (if any). | |
621 | ||
622 | * New Readline | |
623 | ||
624 | GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change | |
625 | is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously | |
626 | required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?). | |
627 | ||
628 | * Bugs fixed | |
629 | ||
630 | The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed. | |
631 | Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled. | |
632 | See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details. | |
633 | ||
634 | * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered): | |
635 | ||
636 | GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers | |
637 | supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These | |
638 | symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses. | |
639 | ||
640 | Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called | |
641 | mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level | |
642 | debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship | |
643 | mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc | |
644 | version 2. | |
645 | ||
646 | Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not | |
647 | really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get | |
648 | line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local | |
649 | variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the | |
650 | situation somewhat. | |
651 | ||
652 | When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck. | |
653 | However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and | |
654 | methods. | |
655 | ||
656 | We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on | |
657 | DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff | |
658 | encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet. | |
659 | ||
660 | ||
661 | *** Changes in GDB-4.2: | |
662 | ||
663 | * Improved configuration | |
664 | ||
665 | Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying. | |
666 | Porting BFD is simpler. | |
667 | ||
668 | * Stepping improved | |
669 | ||
670 | The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction | |
671 | of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur | |
672 | in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a | |
673 | function that has debugging information is called within the line. | |
674 | ||
675 | * Bug fixing | |
676 | ||
677 | Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain. | |
678 | ||
679 | * New host supported (not target) | |
680 | ||
681 | Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach | |
682 | ||
683 | ||
684 | *** Changes in GDB-4.1: | |
685 | ||
686 | * Multiple source language support | |
687 | ||
688 | GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages. | |
689 | It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension, | |
690 | and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the | |
691 | language of the function in the currently selected stack frame. | |
692 | You can also specifically set the language to be used, with | |
693 | `set language c' or `set language modula-2'. | |
694 | ||
695 | * GDB and Modula-2 | |
696 | ||
697 | GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler, | |
698 | currently under development at the State University of New York at | |
699 | Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will | |
700 | continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992. | |
701 | ||
702 | Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to | |
703 | debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the | |
704 | symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though! | |
705 | ||
706 | There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking, | |
707 | in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work. | |
708 | ||
709 | * set write on/off | |
710 | ||
711 | GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch | |
712 | a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify | |
713 | the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g. | |
714 | by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take | |
715 | effect immediately. | |
716 | ||
717 | * Automatic SunOS shared library reading | |
718 | ||
719 | When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its | |
720 | shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols. | |
721 | The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when | |
722 | examining core files. | |
723 | ||
724 | * set listsize | |
725 | ||
726 | You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows. | |
727 | The default is 10. | |
728 | ||
729 | * New machines supported (host and target) | |
730 | ||
731 | SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris | |
732 | Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news | |
733 | Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3 | |
734 | ||
735 | * New hosts supported (not targets) | |
736 | ||
737 | IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc | |
738 | ||
739 | * New targets supported (not hosts) | |
740 | ||
741 | AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff | |
742 | AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout | |
743 | Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern | |
744 | ||
745 | * New remote interfaces | |
746 | ||
747 | AMD 29000 Adapt | |
748 | AMD 29000 Minimon | |
749 | ||
750 | ||
751 | *** Changes in GDB-4.0: | |
752 | ||
753 | * New Facilities | |
754 | ||
755 | Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable. | |
756 | ||
757 | Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a | |
758 | target machine of another type. Communication with the target system | |
759 | is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the | |
760 | remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the | |
761 | remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb | |
762 | also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks, | |
763 | using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger | |
764 | stub on the target system. | |
765 | ||
766 | New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960. | |
767 | ||
768 | GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file'' | |
769 | library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple | |
770 | object file types such as a.out and coff. | |
771 | ||
772 | There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets | |
773 | refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it). | |
774 | ||
775 | ||
776 | * Control-Variable user interface simplified | |
777 | ||
778 | All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set | |
779 | by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command. | |
780 | ||
781 | For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>. | |
782 | ``Show prompt'' produces the response: | |
783 | Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>. | |
784 | ||
785 | What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will | |
786 | print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO'' | |
787 | will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show | |
788 | all of the variable descriptions and their current settings. | |
789 | ||
790 | confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are | |
791 | hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while | |
792 | it is already running. Default is ON. | |
793 | ||
794 | editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing | |
795 | of input. Previous lines can be recalled with | |
796 | control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B, | |
797 | you can search for commands with control-R, etc. | |
798 | Default is ON. | |
799 | ||
800 | history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history | |
801 | will be stored. The default is .gdb_history, | |
802 | or the value of the environment variable | |
803 | GDBHISTFILE. | |
804 | ||
805 | history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The | |
806 | default is 256, or the value of the environment variable | |
807 | HISTSIZE. | |
808 | ||
809 | history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will | |
810 | be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the | |
811 | file will not be saved. The default is OFF. | |
812 | ||
813 | history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like | |
814 | history expansion will be performed on | |
815 | command line input. The default is OFF. | |
816 | ||
817 | radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set | |
818 | to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted | |
819 | in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op. | |
820 | ||
821 | height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default | |
822 | is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#'' | |
823 | setting from the termcap entry matching the environment | |
824 | variable TERM. | |
825 | ||
826 | width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line. | |
827 | Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#'' | |
828 | setting from the termcap entry matching the environment | |
829 | variable TERM. | |
830 | ||
831 | Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and | |
832 | ``set width'' instead. | |
833 | ||
834 | print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays, | |
835 | such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks | |
836 | more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more | |
837 | ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON. | |
838 | ||
839 | print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default | |
840 | is OFF. | |
841 | ||
842 | print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on, | |
843 | "raw" form if off. | |
844 | ||
845 | print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts | |
846 | like instructions. | |
847 | ||
848 | print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF. | |
849 | ||
850 | ||
851 | * Support for Epoch Environment. | |
852 | ||
853 | The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One | |
854 | new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you | |
855 | are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own | |
856 | window. | |
857 | ||
858 | ||
859 | * Support for Shared Libraries | |
860 | ||
861 | GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries. | |
862 | Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced | |
863 | before the shared library has been linked with the program (this | |
864 | happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered). | |
865 | At any time after this linking (including when examining core files | |
866 | from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each | |
867 | shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command. | |
868 | It can be abbreviated ``share''. | |
869 | ||
870 | sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files | |
871 | matching a unix regular expression. No argument | |
872 | indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries. | |
873 | ||
874 | info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries. | |
875 | ||
876 | ||
877 | * Watchpoints | |
878 | ||
879 | A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an | |
880 | expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution | |
881 | tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is | |
882 | quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse | |
883 | problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this | |
884 | more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware. | |
885 | ||
886 | watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression. | |
887 | ||
888 | info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints. | |
889 | ||
890 | delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
891 | disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
892 | enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). | |
893 | ||
894 | ||
895 | * C++ multiple inheritance | |
896 | ||
897 | When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance | |
898 | for C++ programs. | |
899 | ||
900 | * C++ exception handling | |
901 | ||
902 | Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing | |
903 | ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on | |
904 | the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the | |
905 | handler's context). | |
906 | ||
907 | catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope, | |
908 | set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there. | |
909 | Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught. | |
910 | ||
911 | info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the | |
912 | current stack frame. | |
913 | ||
914 | ||
915 | * Minor command changes | |
916 | ||
917 | The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print | |
918 | command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result | |
919 | is void. This is similar to dbx usage. | |
920 | ||
921 | The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up | |
922 | at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change | |
923 | frames without printing. | |
924 | ||
925 | * New directory command | |
926 | ||
927 | 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path. | |
928 | The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information | |
929 | about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even | |
930 | with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't | |
931 | find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .". | |
932 | ||
933 | * Configuring GDB for compilation | |
934 | ||
935 | For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo | |
936 | for more details. | |
937 | ||
938 | GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between | |
939 | two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''. | |
940 | Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine | |
941 | where the program that you are debugging will run. |