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1 What has changed since GDB-3.5?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes in GDB-???:
5
6 * User visible changes:
7
8All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
9vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
10should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
11your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
12to be on the far side of a thin network line.
13
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14*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
15
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16 * Testsuite
17
18This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
19The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
20via 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
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25emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
26Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
27disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
28use gdb with AT&T cfront.
45364c8a 29
c787ca55 30 * Simulators
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31
32GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
33So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
34Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
35
36 * New targets supported
37
38H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
39H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
40SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
41Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
8b946797 42IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
8ae56378 43
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44Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
45version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
0a4a0f09 46GO32 memory extender.
cb46c402 47
0a4a0f09 48 * New remote protocols
cb46c402 49
0a4a0f09 50MIPS remote debugging protocol.
cb46c402 51
0a4a0f09 52 * New source languages supported
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54This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
55used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
56into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
cb46c402 57
cb46c402 58
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59*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
60
3421ec35 61 * HP Precision Architecture supported
c5cc95b1 62
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63GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
64version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
65University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
66compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6d0380ee 67format. 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 70Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
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71
72 * Faster and better demangling
73
74We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
75demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
76character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
77only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
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78This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
79increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
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80symbol lookups.
81
82`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
83from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
84compiler does not actually implement.
85
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86 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
87
88In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
89inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
90recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
91very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
92The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
93circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
94fix.
95
96The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
97release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
98
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99 * Improved configure script
100
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101The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
102you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
103host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
104done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
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105
106We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
107version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
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108`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
109The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
110only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
111We hope to make this the default in a future release.
112
113 * Documentation improvements
114
115There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
116produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
117before submitting changes.
118
119The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
120M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
121`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
122you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
123a future texinfo-X.Y release.
124
125*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
126We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
127been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
128or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
129`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
130around this problem.
c5cc95b1 131
3421ec35 132 * New features
c5cc95b1 133
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134GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
135the 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
137the target program.
c5cc95b1 138
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139The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
140how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
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141
142 * New native hosts supported
143
144HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
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145386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
146
147 * New targets supported
148
149AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
150
151 * New file formats supported
152
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153BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
154HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
155
156 * Major bug fixes
157
158Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
159
160We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
161printf_filtered("%s") problems.
162
163We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
164for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
165release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
166
167You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
168will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
169
170We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
171for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
172especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
173libraries.
c5cc95b1 174
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175The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
176information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
177command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
178any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
179when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
180
181 * Internal improvements
182
183GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
184debugging of multiple languages in the future.
185
186GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
187Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
188symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
189contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
190shared code that handles any of them.
191
192 * New command line options
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193
194We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
195
3421ec35 196 * Mmalloc licensing
c5cc95b1 197
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198The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
199General Public License.
c5cc95b1 200
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201*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
202
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203 * Host/native/target split
204
205GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
206hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
207target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
208local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
209ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
210
211The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
212GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
213is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
214code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
215any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
216built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
217handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
218
219GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
220It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
221plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
222
223 * New hosts supported
224
225HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
226386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
227386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
228
229 * New targets supported
76ba9b5b 230
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231Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
23268030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5f5be54c 233
c00d8242 234 * New native hosts supported
5f5be54c 235
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236386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
237 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
238386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5f5be54c 239
c00d8242 240 * New file formats supported
5f5be54c 241
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242BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
243supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
244format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5f5be54c 245
c00d8242 246 * New commands
5f5be54c 247
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248`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
249`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
250These 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
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254You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
255scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
256prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
257executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
258
259 * C++ improvements
260
261We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
262info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
263symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
264
265Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
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266
267 * Major bug fixes
268
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269The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
270fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
271by the compiler.
5f5be54c 272
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273We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
274support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
275
276John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
277slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
278that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
279purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
280the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
281mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
282
283Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
284about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
285completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
286we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
287
288 * AMD 29k support
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290A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
291specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
292calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
293usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
294in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
295
296We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
297Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
298of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
299resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
300
301 * Remote interfaces
302
303We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
304with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
305message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
306This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
307needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
308breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
309each instruction being stepped through.
310
311The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
312registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
313
314There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
315find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
316Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
317processor with a serial port.
318
319 * Configuration
320
321Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
322`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
323supported, and what files each one uses.
324
325 * Library changes
326
327There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
328disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
329Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
330disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
331
332The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
333Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
334can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
335grants all the rights from the General Public License.
336
337 * Documentation
338
339The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
340reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
341as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
342encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
343system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
344bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
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345
346And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
76ba9b5b 347
c00d8242 348
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349*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
350
351 * Better support for C++ function names
352
353GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
354names 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
356single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
357Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
358
359GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
360the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
361You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
362lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
363for the list of formats.
364
365 * G++ symbol mangling problem
366
367Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
368C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
369directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
370can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
371usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
372about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
373this problem.)
374
375 * New 'maintenance' command
376
377All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
378the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
379can 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
388The 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
396We 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
398be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
399read after argv processing.
400
401 * New hosts supported
402
403Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
404
405Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
406
407We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
408is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
409for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
410masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
411fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
412It costs extra.
413
414 * New targets supported
415
416Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
417
418 * More smarts about finding #include files
419
420GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
421all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
422greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
423especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
424the one that contains your sources.
425
426We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
427breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
428try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
429
430 * Interesting infernals change
431
432GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
433section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
434target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
435stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
436
437 * Bug fixes (of course!)
438
439There 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
443See the ChangeLog for details.
444
445*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
446
447 * New machines supported (host and target)
448
449IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
450
451SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
452
453 * New malloc package
454
455GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
456Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
457capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
458This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
459pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
460more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
461
462 * info proc
463
464The '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
469The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
470Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
471possible.
472
473 * File name changes for MS-DOS
474
475Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
476support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
477conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
478environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
479that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
480in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
481
482 * Cross byte order fixes
483
484Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
485targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
486
487 * New -mapped and -readnow options
488
489If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
490system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
491`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
492program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
493called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
494Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
495and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
496the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
497option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
498starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
499
500You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
501the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
502information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
503slower, but makes future operations faster.
504
505The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
506build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
507A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
508use is:
509
510 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
511
512The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
513It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
514shared across multiple host platforms.
515
516 * longjmp() handling
517
518GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
519siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
520all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
521platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
522
523 * Solaris 2.0
524
525Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
526this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
527reading symbols.
528
529 * Bug fixes
530
531As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
532People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
533crashes and trashed symbol tables.
534
535*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
536
537 * New machines supported (host and target)
538
539SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
540 (except core files)
541BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
542Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
543
544 * New machines supported (target)
545
546AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
547
548 * C++ support
549
550GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
551The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
552per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
553
554GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
555`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
556extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
557good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
558will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
559released.
560
561 * New features for SVR4
562
563GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
564shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
565only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
566
567The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
568on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
569it prints the address mappings of the process.
570
571If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
572bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
573
574 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
575
576Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
577now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
578skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
579make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
580same code linked statically.
581
582 * New Getopt
583
584GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
585version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
586continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
587Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
588added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
589future by other options that begin with the same letter.
590
591 * Bugs fixed
592
593The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
594Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
595See 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
602Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
603NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
604Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
605
606 * Almost SCO Unix support
607
608We had hoped to support:
609SCO 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
611that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
612about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
613
614 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
615
616GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
617debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
618is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
619send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
620reqired (if any).
621
622 * New Readline
623
624GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
625is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
626required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
627
628 * Bugs fixed
629
630The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
631Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
632See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
633
634 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
635
636GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
637supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
638symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
639
640Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
641mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
642debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
643mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
644version 2.
645
646Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
647really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
648line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
649variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
650situation somewhat.
651
652When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
653However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
654methods.
655
656We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
657DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
658encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
659
660
661*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
662
663 * Improved configuration
664
665Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
666Porting BFD is simpler.
667
668 * Stepping improved
669
670The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
671of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
672in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
673function that has debugging information is called within the line.
674
675 * Bug fixing
676
677Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
678
679 * New host supported (not target)
680
681Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
682
683
684*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
685
686 * Multiple source language support
687
688GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
689It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
690and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
691language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
692You 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
697GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
698currently under development at the State University of New York at
699Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
700continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
701
702Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
703debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
704symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
705
706There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
707in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
708
709 * set write on/off
710
711GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
712a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
713the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
714by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
715effect immediately.
716
717 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
718
719When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
720shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
721The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
722examining core files.
723
724 * set listsize
725
726You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
727The default is 10.
728
729 * New machines supported (host and target)
730
731SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
732Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
733Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
734
735 * New hosts supported (not targets)
736
737IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
738
739 * New targets supported (not hosts)
740
741AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
742AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
743Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
744
745 * New remote interfaces
746
747AMD 29000 Adapt
748AMD 29000 Minimon
749
750
751*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
752
753 * New Facilities
754
755Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
756
757Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
758target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
759is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
760remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
761remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
762also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
763using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
764stub on the target system.
765
766New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
767
768GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
769library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
770object file types such as a.out and coff.
771
772There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
773refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
774
775
776 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
777
778All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
779by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
780
781For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
782``Show prompt'' produces the response:
783Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
784
785What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
786print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
787will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
788all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
789
790confirm 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
794editing 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
800history 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
805history 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
809history 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
813history 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
817radix 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
821height 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
826width 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
831Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
832``set width'' instead.
833
834print 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
839print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
840 is OFF.
841
842print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
843 "raw" form if off.
844
845print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
846 like instructions.
847
848print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
849
850
851 * Support for Epoch Environment.
852
853The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
854new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
855are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
856window.
857
858
859 * Support for Shared Libraries
860
861GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
862Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
863before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
864happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
865At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
866from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
867shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
868It can be abbreviated ``share''.
869
870sharedlibrary 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
874info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
875
876
877 * Watchpoints
878
879A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
880expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
881tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
882quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
883problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
884more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
885
886watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
887
888info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
889
890delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
891disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
892enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
893
894
895 * C++ multiple inheritance
896
897When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
898for C++ programs.
899
900 * C++ exception handling
901
902Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
903ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
904the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
905handler's context).
906
907catch 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
911info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
912 current stack frame.
913
914
915 * Minor command changes
916
917The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
918command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
919is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
920
921The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
922at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
923frames without printing.
924
925 * New directory command
926
927'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
928The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
929about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
930with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
931find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
932
933 * Configuring GDB for compilation
934
935For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
936for more details.
937
938GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
939two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
940Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
941where the program that you are debugging will run.
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