* pe-dll.c: Revert changes accidentally committed 2004-03-08.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
faae5abe
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.1:
5
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6* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
7
8The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
9permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
10systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
11
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12* New native configurations
13
d195bc9f 14OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 15NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 16OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 17
3c7012f5
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18* REMOVED configurations and files
19
20Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
21Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
22Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
23Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
24Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
25AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
26Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
27decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
28riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
29sonymips mips-sony-*
30sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
31
faae5abe 32*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 33
9175c9a3
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34* Removed --with-mmalloc
35
36Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
37conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
38
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39* Changes in AMD64 configurations
40
41The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
42the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
43and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
44you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
45
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46* Revised SPARC target
47
48The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
49FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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MK
50support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
51from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
52(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 53
59659be2
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54* New C++ demangler
55
56GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
57names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
58with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
59programs.
60
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61* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
62
63GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
64arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
65encountered these.
66
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67* C++ nested types and namespaces
68
69GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
70improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
71is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
72Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
73namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
74"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
75frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
76if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
77GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
78
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79* New native configurations
80
81NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 82OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 83OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
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84OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
85OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 86
b4b4b794
KI
87* New debugging protocols
88
89M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
90
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91* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
92
93The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
94and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
95tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
96
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97* OBSOLETE configurations and files
98
99Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
100been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
101configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
102permanently REMOVED.
103
104Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
105Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
106Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
107Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
108Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
109AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
110Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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111decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
112riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
113sonymips mips-sony-*
114sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 115
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116* REMOVED configurations and files
117
118SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
119SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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120Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
121Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
122H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
123HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
124HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
125HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
126PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 127386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
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128Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
129 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
130 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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131SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
132SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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133Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
134Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 135
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136*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
137
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138* Objective-C
139
140Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
141integrated into GDB.
142
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143* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
144
145DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
146information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
147By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
148backtraces.
149
150The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
151have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
152DWARF 2 CFI support.
153
154* Hosted file I/O.
155
156GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
157file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
158remote protocol documentation for details.
159
160* All targets using the new architecture framework.
161
162All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
163architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
164to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
165ppc32 on ppc64).
166
167* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
168
169GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
170per-thread variables.
171
172* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
173
174GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
175GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
176
177* Separate debug info.
178
179GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
180automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
181of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
182system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
183and optional debug files.
184
185* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
186
187DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
188describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
189debugger.
190
191GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
192for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
193
194* Java
195
196A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
197Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
198considered "useable".
199
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200* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
201
202The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
203commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
204kernel.
205
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206* GDB supports logging output to a file
207
208There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
209used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 210
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211* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
212
213The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
214disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
215command.
216
e286caf2 217* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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218
219The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
220registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
221
d28f9cdf
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222* Profiling support
223
224A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
225be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
226session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
227"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
228data, for more informative profiling results.
229
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230* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
231
232The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
233option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 234"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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235
236Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
237removed.
238
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JJ
239Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
240Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
241Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
242 in a subsequent -var-update.
243
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244* New native configurations.
245
246FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
247
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248* Multi-arched targets.
249
b4263afa 250HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 251Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 252
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253* OBSOLETE configurations and files
254
255Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
256been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
257configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
258permanently REMOVED.
259
8b0e5691 260Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 261Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 262H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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263HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
264HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
265HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 266PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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267Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
268 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
269 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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AC
270Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
271Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 272
5835abe7
NC
273* REMOVED configurations and files
274
275V850EA ISA
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276Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
277IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
278i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
279i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
280i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
281HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
282 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
283 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
284Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
285Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
286Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
287OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
288I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 289
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290* MIPS $fp behavior changed
291
292The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
293the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
294context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
295address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
296The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
297
299ffc64 298*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 299
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300* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
301
302When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
303`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
304in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
305library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
306shared libs like mad''.
307
b9d14705 308* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 309
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310Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
311the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
312arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
313powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 314
e0e9281e
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315* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
316
317GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
318and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
319they expand.
320
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321The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
322invocations in expression, and shows the result.
323
324The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
325macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
326
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327Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
328information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
329your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
330information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
331
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332* Multi-arched targets.
333
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334DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
335DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 336NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 337National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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338Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
339Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 340
cd9bfe15 341* New targets.
e33ce519 342
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343Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
344
e33ce519 345
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346* New native configurations
347
348Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 349SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 350MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 351UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 352
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AC
353* OBSOLETE configurations and files
354
355Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
356been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
357configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
358permanently REMOVED.
359
92eb23c5 360Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 361OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 362IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 363Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 364Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 365Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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366i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
367i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
368i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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369HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
370 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
371 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 372I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 373
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374* OBSOLETE languages
375
376CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
377
cd9bfe15
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378* REMOVED configurations and files
379
380AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
381A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
382AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
383AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
384AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
385
386testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
387
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DH
388* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
389
390This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
391commands. The default is 1024.
392
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MK
393* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
394
395Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
396
89743e04
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397* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
398
399These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
400to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
401from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 402
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403* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
404
405The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
406including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
407of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
408
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409*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
410
411* New targets.
412
413Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
414
415* Bug fixes
416
417gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
418mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
419Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
420
421gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
422dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
423Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
424
425Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
426Surprisingly enough, it works now.
427By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
428
429i386 hardware watchpoint support:
430avoid misses on second run for some targets.
431By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
432
37057839 433*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 434
1a703748
MS
435* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
436
437This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
438really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
439In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
440target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
441This can be a significant performance improvement on some
442(notably embedded) targets.
443
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444* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
445
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446This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
447process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
448GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
449hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 450
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451* New command line option
452
453GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
454
455* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
456
457There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
458command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
459a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
460be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
461open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
462issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
463a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
464it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
465GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
466is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
467
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468* Changes in ARM configurations.
469
470Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
471configuration is fully multi-arch.
472
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473* New native configurations
474
fe419ffc 475ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 476x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 477AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 478Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 479
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480* New targets
481
482Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
483
9b4ff276
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484* OBSOLETE configurations and files
485
486Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
487been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
488configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
489permanently REMOVED.
490
491AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
492A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
493AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
494AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
495AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
496
b4ceaee6 497testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 498
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AC
499* REMOVED configurations and files
500
501TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 502WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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503PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
504PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
505PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 506Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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507Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
508 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 509SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 510Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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511Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
512ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 513Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 514
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515* Changes to command line processing
516
517The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
518for the inferior from gdb's command line.
519
467d8519
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520* Changes to key bindings
521
522There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
523
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524*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
525
526Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
527
528Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
529corrupted.
530
531Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
532
533Numerous documentation fixes.
534
535Numerous testsuite fixes.
536
34f47bc4 537*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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538
539* New native configurations
540
541Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
542x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 543MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
544MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
545ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 546s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 547
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548* New targets
549
def90278 550Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 551CRIS cris-axis
55241689 552UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 553
17e78a56 554* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
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555
556x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 557Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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558Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
559 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
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560TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
561WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 562Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
563PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
564PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
565PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 566SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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AC
567Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
568ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 569Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 570
17e78a56
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571stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
572kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
573
7fcca85b
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574Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
575been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
576configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
577permanently REMOVED.
578
a196c81c 579* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
580
581Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
582Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
583Pyramid pyramid-*-*
584ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
585Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 586ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 587
6d6b80e5 588* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 589
6d6b80e5 590GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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591sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
592present.
593
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594* Other news:
595
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596* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
597
598* The MI enabled by default.
599
600The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
601revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
602engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
603using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
604which is now deprecated.
605
606* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
607
608GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
609main features are supported:
610
611 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
612
613 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
614 extension;
615
616 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
617
618 - a Pascal expression parser.
619
620However, some important features are not yet supported.
621
622 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
623
624 - there are some problems with boolean types;
625
626 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
627 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
628
629 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
630
631 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
632
633* Changes in completion.
634
635Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
636to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
637users expect at the shell prompt.
638
639Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
640`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
641program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
642files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
643be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
644considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
645name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
646
647`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
648
649* New platform-independent commands:
650
651It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
652hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
653documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
654
655* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
656
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MK
657Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
658revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
659many threads as your system allows you to have.
660
e23194cb
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661Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
662
d7275149
MK
663Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
664multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
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665
666* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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AC
667
668Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
669
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670GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
671debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
672supported.)
673
674* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
675
676Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
677breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
678implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
679put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
680and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
681registers.
682
683The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
684debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
685watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
686
687* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
688
689New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
690the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
691
692New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
693display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
694IDT.
695
696New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
697from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
698New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
699a given linear address.
700
701GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
702program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
703which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
704
705DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
706
6c56c069
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707It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
708
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709* Changes in documentation.
710
711All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
712Documentation License.
713
714Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
715manual.
716
717TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
718
719Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
720manual.
721
722The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
723documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
724hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
725
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AC
726* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
727
728The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
729``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
730contents of this file.
731
1a1d8446
AC
732* gdba.el deleted
733
734GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 735
9debab2f 736*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 737
c63ce875
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738* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
739
740Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
741programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
742displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
743greater level of detail.
744
745* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
746
747It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
748bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
749on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
750written.
751
752* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
753
754The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
755necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
756machines ``out of the box''.
757
758The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
759possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
760signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
761would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
762interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
763
764It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
765standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
766even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
767and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
768terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
769
770The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
771enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
772also works.
773
774DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
775GDB.
776
777It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
778directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
779times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
780breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
781
ed9a39eb
JM
782* New native configurations
783
784ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 785PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 786
7a292a7a
SS
787* New targets
788
96baa820 789Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
790x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
791PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
792TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
793
085dd6e6
JM
794* OBSOLETE configurations
795
796Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
797Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 798Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 799ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 800Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 801
9debab2f
AC
802Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
803but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
804these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
805be permanently REMOVED.
806
5330533d
SS
807* Gould support removed
808
809Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
810
bc9e5bbf
AC
811* New features for SVR4
812
813On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
814without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
815load symbols from the running process's executable file.
816
817* Many C++ enhancements
818
819C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
820in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
821
adf40b2e
JM
822* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
823
824A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
825sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
826with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
827``|<program> <args>'' vis:
828
829 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
830 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
831
43e526b9
JM
832* MIPS 64 remote protocol
833
834A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
835expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
836instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
837
838The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
839added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
840
96baa820
JM
841* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
842
843The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
844``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
845include ``set remote P-packet''.
846
11cf8741
JM
847* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
848
849The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
850accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
851``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
852
7876dd43
DB
853* ``apropos'' command added.
854
855The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
856documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
857try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
858
bc9e5bbf
AC
859* New MI interface
860
861A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
862interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
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863process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
864"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
865enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
866
867 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
868
c906108c
SS
869*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
870
871* New native configurations
872
873HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
874HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 875M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
876
877* New targets
878
879Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
880Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
881Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
882
883* OBSOLETE configurations
884
885Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
886
887Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
888but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
889these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
890be permanently REMOVED.
891
892* ANSI/ISO C
893
894As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
895buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
896containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
897use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
898available. If this is not true, please report the affected
899configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
900information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
901already.
902
903* Readline 2.2
904
905GDB now uses readline 2.2.
906
907* set extension-language
908
909You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
910languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
911you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
912 set extension-language .c c++
913The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
914and their associated languages.
915
916* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
917
918When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
919you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
920PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
921
922 set processor NAME
923
924sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
925following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
926
927 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
928 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
929 403 IBM PowerPC 403
930 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
931 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
932 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
933 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
934 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
935 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
936 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
937 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
938
939At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
940special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
941registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
942only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
943
944* HP-UX support
945
946Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
947more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
948library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
949support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
950for xdb and dbx commands.
951
952* Catchpoints
953
954HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
955generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
956to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
957
958This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
959argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
960output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
961
962* Debugging across forks
963
964On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
965in the inferior.
966
967* TUI
968
969HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
970it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
971configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
972
973* GDB remote protocol additions
974
975A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
976Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
977fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
978allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
979
980For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
981full 64-bit address. The command
982
983 set remoteaddresssize 32
984
985can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
986the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
987will be discarded.
988
989In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
990command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
991
992 maint packet heythere
993
994sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
995disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
996time.
997
998The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
999target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1000downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1001
1002* Tracing can collect general expressions
1003
1004You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1005further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1006doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1007
1008* mask-address variable for Mips
1009
1010For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1011a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1012of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1013
1014* Higher serial baud rates
1015
1016GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1017230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1018to achieve all of these rates.)
1019
1020* i960 simulator
1021
1022The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1023builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1024
1025
1026*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1027
1028* New native configurations
1029
1030Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1031Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1032Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1033PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1034PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1035Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1036Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1037
1038* New targets
1039
1040Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1041Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1042Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1043Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1044MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1045MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1046MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1047Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1048Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1049Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1050NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1051
1052* New debugging protocols
1053
1054ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1055M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1056DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1057PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1058PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1059Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1060
1061* DWARF 2
1062
1063All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1064format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1065information.
1066
1067* Java frontend
1068
1069GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1070only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1071
1072* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1073
1074For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1075loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1076locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1077
1078* Live range splitting
1079
1080GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1081range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1082more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1083
1084* Hurd support
1085
1086GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1087updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1088
1089* ARM Thumb support
1090
1091GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1092instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1093instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1094accordingly.
1095
1096* MIPS16 support
1097
1098GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1099instruction set.
1100
1101* Overlay support
1102
1103GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1104linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1105will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1106control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1107additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1108in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1109
1110* info symbol
1111
1112The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1113the symbol at the specified address.
1114
1115* Trace support
1116
1117The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1118asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1119extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1120includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1121file tracepoint.c for more details.
1122
1123* MIPS simulator
1124
1125Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1126by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1127of most MIPS variants.
1128
1129* Sparc simulator
1130
1131Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1132by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1133Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1134
1135* set architecture
1136
1137For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1138basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1139architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1140the possible architectures.
1141
1142*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1143
1144* New native configurations
1145
1146Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1147M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1148PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1149PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1150PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1151RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1152
1153* New targets
1154
1155ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1156I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1157MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1158MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1159PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1160Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1161Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1162
1163* PowerPC simulator
1164
1165The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1166contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1167PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1168basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1169performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1170
1171* Solaris 2.5
1172
1173GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1174
1175* Windows 95/NT native
1176
1177GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1178To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1179which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1180Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1181ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1182
1183* dont-repeat command
1184
1185If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1186command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1187useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1188extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1189
1190* Send break instead of ^C
1191
1192The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1193rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1194GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1195
1196* Remote protocol timeout
1197
1198The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1199that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1200to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1201
1202* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1203
1204By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1205loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1206stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1207when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1208in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1209
1210Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1211/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1212automatically on hpux10.
1213
1214* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1215
1216Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1217
1218* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1219
1220When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1221may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1222the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1223every character. The default value is 1050.
1224
1225* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1226
1227If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1228a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1229replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1230details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1231remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1232to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1233
1234* Speedups for remote debugging
1235
1236GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1237the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1238and more efficient S-record downloading.
1239
1240* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1241
1242GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1243Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1244
1245*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1246
1247* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1248
1249The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1250can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1251
1252* Remote targets use caching
1253
1254Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1255remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1256it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1257debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1258off' turns the the data cache off.
1259
1260* Remote targets may have threads
1261
1262The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1263in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1264gdb/remote.c for details.
1265
1266* NetROM support
1267
1268If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1269support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1270acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1271write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1272support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1273another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1274sequence is something like
1275
1276 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1277 load <prog>
1278 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1279
1280* Macintosh host
1281
1282GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1283may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1284it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1285available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1286device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1287directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1288scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1289mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1290
1291* Autoconf
1292
1293GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1294but does simplify configuration and building.
1295
1296* hpux10
1297
1298GDB now supports hpux10.
1299
1300*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1301
1302* New native configurations
1303
1304x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1305x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1306NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1307Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1308
1309* New targets
1310
1311A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1312HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1313CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1314PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1315WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1316
1317* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1318
1319GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1320possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1321filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1322the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1323if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1324
1325* Arguments to user-defined commands
1326
1327User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1328Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1329trivial example:
1330define adder
1331 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1332
1333To execute the command use:
1334adder 1 2 3
1335
1336Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1337Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1338use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1339
1340* New `if' and `while' commands
1341
1342This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1343commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1344expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1345execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1346terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1347`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1348if the expression is zero.
1349
1350* Fortran source language mode
1351
1352GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1353Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1354variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1355with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1356Fortran compilers.
1357
1358* Better HPUX support
1359
1360Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1361running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1362processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1363for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1364that behavior do the following before running the program:
1365
1366 adb -w a.out
1367 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1368 control-d
1369
1370This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1371To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1372
1373 adb -w a.out
1374 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1375 control-d
1376
1377You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1378the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1379external linkage.
1380
1381GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1382HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1383
1384* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1385
1386You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1387commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1388current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1389"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1390associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1391configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1392
1393* New DOS host serial code
1394
1395This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1396no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1397a PC's serial port.
1398
1399*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1400
1401* New "complete" command
1402
1403This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1404were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1405
1406* Trailing space optional in prompt
1407
1408"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1409allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1410
1411* Breakpoint hit counts
1412
1413"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1414has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1415can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1416to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1417less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1418that breakpoint.
1419
1420* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1421
1422"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1423an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1424arrays actually contain only short strings.
1425
1426* Shared library breakpoints
1427
1428In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1429breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1430
1431* Hardware watchpoints
1432
1433There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1434targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1435
55241689 1436Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1437
1438* Annotations
1439
1440Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1441and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1442
1443* Improved Irix 5 support
1444
1445GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1446
1447* Improved HPPA support
1448
1449GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1450
1451* New native configurations
1452
1453Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1454HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1455Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1456RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1457
1458* New targets
1459
1460OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1461MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1462Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1463
1464* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1465
1466There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1467This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1468
1469* Fixes
1470
1471As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1472and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1473
1474*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1475
1476* Irix 5 is now supported
1477
1478* HPPA support
1479
1480GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1481to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1482GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1483of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1484can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1485
1486
1487*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1488
1489* User visible changes:
1490
1491* Remote Debugging
1492
1493The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1494target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1495debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1496integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1497debugging info for the mips target).
1498
1499* DEC Alpha native support
1500
1501GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1502debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1503work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1504Alpha-specific notes.
1505
1506* Preliminary thread implementation
1507
1508GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1509
1510* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1511
1512This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1513to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1514for details).
1515
1516* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1517
1518This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1519mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1520call methods, ...etc.
1521
1522*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1523
1524 * User visible changes:
1525
1526Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1527supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1528other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1529somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1530
1531Filename completion now works.
1532
1533When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1534arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1535addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1536
1537All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1538vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1539should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1540your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1541to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1542
1543 * DEC alpha support
1544
1545This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1546cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1547
1548
1549*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1550
1551 * Testsuite
1552
1553This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1554The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1555via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1556
1557 * C++ demangling
1558
1559'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1560emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1561Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1562disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1563use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1564
1565 * Simulators
1566
1567GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1568So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1569Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1570
1571 * New targets supported
1572
1573H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1574H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1575SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1576Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1577IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1578
1579Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1580version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1581GO32 memory extender.
1582
1583 * New remote protocols
1584
1585MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1586
1587 * New source languages supported
1588
1589This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1590used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1591into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1592
1593
1594*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1595
1596 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1597
1598GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1599version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1600University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1601compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1602format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1603(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1604
1605Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1606
1607 * Faster and better demangling
1608
1609We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1610demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1611character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1612only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1613This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1614increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1615symbol lookups.
1616
1617`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1618from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1619compiler does not actually implement.
1620
1621 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1622
1623In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1624inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1625recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1626very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1627The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1628circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1629fix.
1630
1631The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1632release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1633
1634 * Improved configure script
1635
1636The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1637you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1638host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1639done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1640
1641We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1642version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1643`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1644The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1645only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1646We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1647
1648 * Documentation improvements
1649
1650There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1651produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1652before submitting changes.
1653
1654The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1655M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1656`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1657you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1658a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1659
1660*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1661We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1662been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1663or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1664`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1665around this problem.
1666
1667 * New features
1668
1669GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1670the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1671`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1672the target program.
1673
1674The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1675how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1676
1677 * New native hosts supported
1678
1679HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1680386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1681
1682 * New targets supported
1683
1684AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1685
1686 * New file formats supported
1687
1688BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1689HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1690
1691 * Major bug fixes
1692
1693Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1694
1695We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1696printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1697
1698We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1699for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1700release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1701
1702You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1703will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1704
1705We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1706for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1707especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1708libraries.
1709
1710The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1711information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1712command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1713any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1714when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1715
1716 * Internal improvements
1717
1718GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1719debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1720
1721GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1722Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1723symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1724contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1725shared code that handles any of them.
1726
1727 * New command line options
1728
1729We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1730
1731 * Mmalloc licensing
1732
1733The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1734General Public License.
1735
1736*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1737
1738 * Host/native/target split
1739
1740GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1741hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1742target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1743local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1744ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1745
1746The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1747GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1748is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1749code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1750any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1751built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1752handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1753
1754GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1755It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1756plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1757
1758 * New hosts supported
1759
1760HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1761386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1762386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1763
1764 * New targets supported
1765
1766Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
176768030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1768
1769 * New native hosts supported
1770
1771386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1772 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1773386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1774
1775 * New file formats supported
1776
1777BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1778supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1779format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1780
1781 * New commands
1782
1783`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1784`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1785These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1786
1787`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1788
1789You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1790scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1791prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1792executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1793
1794 * C++ improvements
1795
1796We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1797info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1798symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1799
1800Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1801
1802 * Major bug fixes
1803
1804The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1805fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1806by the compiler.
1807
1808We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1809support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1810
1811John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1812slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1813that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1814purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1815the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1816mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1817
1818Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1819about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1820completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1821we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1822
1823 * AMD 29k support
1824
1825A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1826specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1827calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1828usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1829in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1830
1831We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1832Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1833of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1834resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1835
1836 * Remote interfaces
1837
1838We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1839with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1840message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1841This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1842needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1843breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1844each instruction being stepped through.
1845
1846The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1847registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1848
1849There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1850find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1851Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1852processor with a serial port.
1853
1854 * Configuration
1855
1856Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1857`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1858supported, and what files each one uses.
1859
1860 * Library changes
1861
1862There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1863disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1864Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1865disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1866
1867The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1868Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1869can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1870grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1871
1872 * Documentation
1873
1874The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1875reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1876as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1877encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1878system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1879bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1880
1881And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1882
1883
1884*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1885
1886 * Better support for C++ function names
1887
1888GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1889names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1890(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1891single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1892Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1893
1894GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1895the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1896You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1897lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1898for the list of formats.
1899
1900 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1901
1902Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1903C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1904directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1905can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1906usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1907about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1908this problem.)
1909
1910 * New 'maintenance' command
1911
1912All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1913the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1914can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1915
1916 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1917 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1918 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1919 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1920 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1921 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1922
1923The following commands are new:
1924
1925 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1926 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1927 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1928
1929 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1930
1931We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1932(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1933be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1934read after argv processing.
1935
1936 * New hosts supported
1937
1938Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1939
55241689 1940GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1941
1942We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1943is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1944for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1945masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1946fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1947It costs extra.
1948
1949 * New targets supported
1950
1951Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1952
1953 * More smarts about finding #include files
1954
1955GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1956all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1957greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1958especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1959the one that contains your sources.
1960
1961We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1962breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1963try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1964
1965 * Interesting infernals change
1966
1967GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1968section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1969target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1970stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1971
1972 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1973
1974There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1975 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1976 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1977
1978See the ChangeLog for details.
1979
1980*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1981
1982 * New machines supported (host and target)
1983
1984IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1985
1986SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1987
1988 * New malloc package
1989
1990GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1991Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1992capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1993This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1994pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1995more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1996
1997 * info proc
1998
1999The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2000'help info proc' for details.
2001
2002 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2003
2004The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2005Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2006possible.
2007
2008 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2009
2010Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2011support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2012conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2013environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2014that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2015in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2016
2017 * Cross byte order fixes
2018
2019Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2020targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2021
2022 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2023
2024If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2025system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2026`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2027program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2028called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2029Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2030and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2031the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2032option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2033starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2034
2035You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2036the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2037information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2038slower, but makes future operations faster.
2039
2040The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2041build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2042A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2043use is:
2044
2045 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2046
2047The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2048It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2049shared across multiple host platforms.
2050
2051 * longjmp() handling
2052
2053GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2054siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2055all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2056platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2057
2058 * Solaris 2.0
2059
2060Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2061this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2062reading symbols.
2063
2064 * Bug fixes
2065
2066As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2067People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2068crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2069
2070*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2071
2072 * New machines supported (host and target)
2073
2074SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2075 (except core files)
2076BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2077Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2078
2079 * New machines supported (target)
2080
2081AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2082
2083 * C++ support
2084
2085GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2086The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2087per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2088
2089GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2090`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2091extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2092good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2093will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2094released.
2095
2096 * New features for SVR4
2097
2098GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2099shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2100only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2101
2102The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2103on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2104it prints the address mappings of the process.
2105
2106If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2107bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2108
2109 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2110
2111Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2112now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2113skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2114make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2115same code linked statically.
2116
2117 * New Getopt
2118
2119GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2120version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2121continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2122Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2123added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2124future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2125
2126 * Bugs fixed
2127
2128The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2129Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2130See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2131
2132
2133*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2134
2135 * New machines supported (host and target)
2136
2137Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2138NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2139Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2140
2141 * Almost SCO Unix support
2142
2143We had hoped to support:
2144SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2145(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2146that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2147about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2148
2149 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2150
2151GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2152debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2153is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2154send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2155reqired (if any).
2156
2157 * New Readline
2158
2159GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2160is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2161required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2162
2163 * Bugs fixed
2164
2165The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2166Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2167See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2168
2169 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2170
2171GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2172supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2173symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2174
2175Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2176mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2177debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2178mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2179version 2.
2180
2181Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2182really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2183line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2184variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2185situation somewhat.
2186
2187When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2188However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2189methods.
2190
2191We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2192DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2193encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2194
2195
2196*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2197
2198 * Improved configuration
2199
2200Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2201Porting BFD is simpler.
2202
2203 * Stepping improved
2204
2205The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2206of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2207in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2208function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2209
2210 * Bug fixing
2211
2212Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2213
2214 * New host supported (not target)
2215
2216Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2217
2218
2219*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2220
2221 * Multiple source language support
2222
2223GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2224It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2225and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2226language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2227You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2228`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2229
2230 * GDB and Modula-2
2231
2232GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2233currently under development at the State University of New York at
2234Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2235continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2236
2237Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2238debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2239symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2240
2241There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2242in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2243
2244 * set write on/off
2245
2246GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2247a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2248the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2249by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2250effect immediately.
2251
2252 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2253
2254When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2255shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2256The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2257examining core files.
2258
2259 * set listsize
2260
2261You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2262The default is 10.
2263
2264 * New machines supported (host and target)
2265
2266SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2267Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2268Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2269
2270 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2271
2272IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2273
2274 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2275
2276AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2277AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2278Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2279
2280 * New remote interfaces
2281
2282AMD 29000 Adapt
2283AMD 29000 Minimon
2284
2285
2286*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2287
2288 * New Facilities
2289
2290Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2291
2292Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2293target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2294is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2295remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2296remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2297also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2298using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2299stub on the target system.
2300
2301New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2302
2303GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2304library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2305object file types such as a.out and coff.
2306
2307There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2308refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2309
2310
2311 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2312
2313All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2314by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2315
2316For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2317``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2318Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2319
2320What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2321print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2322will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2323all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2324
2325confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2326 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2327 it is already running. Default is ON.
2328
2329editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2330 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2331 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2332 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2333 Default is ON.
2334
2335history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2336 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2337 or the value of the environment variable
2338 GDBHISTFILE.
2339
2340history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2341 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2342 HISTSIZE.
2343
2344history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2345 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2346 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2347
2348history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2349 history expansion will be performed on
2350 command line input. The default is OFF.
2351
2352radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2353 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2354 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2355
2356height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2357 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2358 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2359 variable TERM.
2360
2361width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2362 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2363 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2364 variable TERM.
2365
2366Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2367``set width'' instead.
2368
2369print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2370 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2371 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2372 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2373
2374print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2375 is OFF.
2376
2377print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2378 "raw" form if off.
2379
2380print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2381 like instructions.
2382
2383print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2384
2385
2386 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2387
2388The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2389new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2390are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2391window.
2392
2393
2394 * Support for Shared Libraries
2395
2396GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2397Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2398before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2399happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2400At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2401from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2402shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2403It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2404
2405sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2406 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2407 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2408
2409info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2410
2411
2412 * Watchpoints
2413
2414A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2415expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2416tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2417quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2418problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2419more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2420
2421watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2422
2423info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2424
2425delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2426disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2427enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2428
2429
2430 * C++ multiple inheritance
2431
2432When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2433for C++ programs.
2434
2435 * C++ exception handling
2436
2437Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2438ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2439the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2440handler's context).
2441
2442catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2443 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2444 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2445
2446info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2447 current stack frame.
2448
2449
2450 * Minor command changes
2451
2452The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2453command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2454is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2455
2456The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2457at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2458frames without printing.
2459
2460 * New directory command
2461
2462'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2463The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2464about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2465with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2466find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2467
2468 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2469
2470For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2471for more details.
2472
2473GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2474two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2475Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2476where the program that you are debugging will run.
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