2007-07-03 Markus Deuling <deuling@de.ibm.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.6
5
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6* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
7symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
8-Bsymbolic linker option.
9
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10* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
11recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
12is not supported.
13
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14* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
15frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
16
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17* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1832-bit or 64-bit register values.
19
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20* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
21
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22* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
23target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
24a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
25
e1f48ead 26* Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
f8b73d13 27of numbers.
e1f48ead 28
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29* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
30for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
f8b73d13 31only ARM and MIPS).
123dc839 32
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33* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
34iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 35
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36* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
37ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
38has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
39
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40* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
41
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42* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
43
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44* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
45layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
46segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
47
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48* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
49immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
50
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51* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
52"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
53packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
54where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
55Windows and SymbianOS).
56
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57* New commands
58
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59set remoteflow
60show remoteflow
61 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
62 when debugging using remote targets.
63
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64set mem inaccessible-by-default
65show mem inaccessible-by-default
66 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
67 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
68 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
69 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
70 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
71
72set breakpoint auto-hw
73show breakpoint auto-hw
74 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
75 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
76 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
77 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
78 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
79 including "next" and "finish".
80
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81catch exception
82catch exception unhandled
83 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
84
85catch assert
86 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
87
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88set sysroot
89show sysroot
90 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
91 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
92 an alias to "set sysroot".
93
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94info spu
95 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
96 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
97 architecture.
98
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99* New native configurations
100
101OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
102
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103set tdesc filename
104unset tdesc filename
105show tdesc filename
106 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
107 not query the target for its built-in description.
108
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109* New targets
110
54fe9172 111OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 112MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 113Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 114
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115* New remote packets
116
117QPassSignals:
118 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
119 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
120
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121qXfer:features:read:
122 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
123 features.
6dd09645 124
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125qXfer:spu:read:
126qXfer:spu:write:
127 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
128 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
129
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130qXfer:libraries:read:
131 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
132 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
133 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
134 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
135
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136* Removed targets
137
138Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
139
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140alpha*-*-osf1*
141alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 142d10v-*-*
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143hppa*-*-hiux*
144i[34567]86-ncr-*
145i[34567]86-*-dgux*
146i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
147i[34567]86-*-netware*
148i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
149i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
150i[34567]86-*-sco*
151i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
152i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
153i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
154i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
155i[34567]86-*-unixware*
156i[34567]86-*-sysv*
157i[34567]86-*-isc*
158m68*-cisco*-*
159m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 160mips*-*-pe
483367ee 161rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 162sh*-*-pe
483367ee 163
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164* Other removed features
165
166target abug
167target cpu32bug
168target est
169target rom68k
170
171 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
172
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173target hms
174target e7000
175target sh3
176target sh3e
177
178 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
179 H8/300.
180
181target ocd
182
183 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
184 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
185 interfaces.
186
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187DWARF 1 support
188
189 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
190 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
191
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192Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
193
194 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
195 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
196 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
197 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
198
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199MIPS ".pdr" sections
200
201 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
202 in debugging information.
203
204Scheme support
205
206 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
207 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
208
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209set mips stack-arg-size
210set mips saved-gpreg-size
211
212 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
213
6dd09645 214*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 215
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216* New targets
217
218Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 219Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 220
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221* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
222(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
223running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
224
225* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
226Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
227supported.
228
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229* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
230broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
231
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232* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
233stub provides the required support.
234
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235* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
236longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
237
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238* New commands
239
240set substitute-path
241unset substitute-path
242show substitute-path
243 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
244 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
245 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
246 between compilation and debugging.
247
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248set trace-commands
249show trace-commands
250 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
251 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
252 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
253
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254* REMOVED features
255
256The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
257
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258Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
259an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
260
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261The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
262
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263* New remote packets
264
265qSupported:
266 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
267 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
268 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
269 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
270 target.
271
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272qXfer:auxv:read:
273 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
274 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
275
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276qXfer:memory-map:read:
277 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
278 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
279
280vFlashErase:
281vFlashWrite:
282vFlashDone:
283 Erase and program a flash memory device.
284
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285* Removed remote packets
286
287qPart:auxv:read:
288 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
289 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
290
e374b601 291*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 292
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293* New targets
294
295Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
296
297Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
298
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299* New commands
300
301init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
302 only if it doesn't already have a value.
303
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304The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
305
306checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
307
308restart <n> Return the program state to a
309 previously saved state.
310
311info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
312
313delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
314
315set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
316 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
317
318info forks List forks of the user program that
319 are available to be debugged.
320
321fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
322 forks of the user program that are
323 available to be debugged.
324
325delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
326 that are available to be debugged (and
327 kill the forked process).
328
329detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
330 that are available to be debugged (and
331 allow the process to continue).
332
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333* New architecture
334
335Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
336
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337* Improved Windows host support
338
339GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
340native console support, and remote communications using either
341network sockets or serial ports.
342
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343* Improved Modula-2 language support
344
345GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
346basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
347pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
348printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
349written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
350GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
351
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352* REMOVED features
353
354The ARM rdi-share module.
355
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356The Netware NLM debug server.
357
53e5f3cf 358*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 359
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360* New native configurations
361
02a677ac 362OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
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363OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
364
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365* New targets
366
367Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
368
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369* New command line options
370
371--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
372--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
373 the child (debugged) program exited with.
374--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
375 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
376 specified multiple times and in conjunction
377 with the --command (-x) option.
378
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379* Deprecated commands removed
380
381The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
382removed:
383
384 Command Replacement
385 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
386 othernames set arm disassembler
387 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
388 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
389 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
390 regs info registers
391
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392* New BSD user-level threads support
393
394It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
395library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
396configurations are:
397
398FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
399FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
400OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
401
402Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
403are not yet supported.
404
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405* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
406(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
407
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408* REMOVED configurations and files
409
410VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 411Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 412National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 413
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414* New "set print array-indexes" command
415
416After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
417when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
418behavior.
419
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420* VAX floating point support
421
422GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
423
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424* User-defined command support
425
426In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
427to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
428section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
429
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430*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
431
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432* New command line option
433
434GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
435debugging.
436
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437* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
438
439GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
440information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
441by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
442proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
443to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 444
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445* Internationalization
446
447When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
448internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
449continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
450
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451* Ada
452
453Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
454implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
455into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
456
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457* New native configurations
458
459GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
460
461* Remote 'p' packet
462
463GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
464packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
465
466* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
467
468GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
469The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
470features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
471i386 application).
472
473GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
474compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
475continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
476configurations:
477
478hppa-*-hpux
479ia64-*-aix
480mips-*-irix*
481*-*-lynx
482mips-*-linux-gnu
483sds protocol
484xdr protocol
485powerpc bdm protocol
486
487Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
488made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
489
490* OBSOLETE configurations and files
491
492Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
493been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
494configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
495permanently REMOVED.
496
497h8300-*-*
498mcore-*-*
499mn10300-*-*
500ns32k-*-*
501sh64-*-*
502v850-*-*
503
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504*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
505
506* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
507
508When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
509heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
510been fixed.
511
512* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
513
514When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
515fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
516IRIX long double values).
517
518* VAX and "next"
519
520A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
521command. This problem has been fixed.
522
860660cb 523*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 524
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525* Fix for ``many threads''
526
527On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
528rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
529error message:
530
531 ptrace: No such process.
532 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
533
534This problem has been fixed.
535
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536* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
537
538Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
539GDB to dump core).
540
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541* New ``start'' command.
542
543This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
544
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545* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
546
547Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
548live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
549platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
550
551FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
552FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
553NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
554NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
555NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
556OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
557OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
558OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
559OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
560
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561* Signal trampoline code overhauled
562
563Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
564These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
565of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
566call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
567signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
568
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569Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
570features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
571include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
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573* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
574
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575* New native configurations
576
97dc871c 577GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 578OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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579OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
580OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 581OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 582NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 583OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 584
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585* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
586
587GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
588The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
589including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
590migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
591compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
592work, was also included.
593
594GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
595module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
596
597h8300-*-*
598mcore-*-*
599mn10300-*-*
600ns32k-*-*
601sh64-*-*
602v850-*-*
603xstormy16-*-*
604
605Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
606made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
607
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608* REMOVED configurations and files
609
610Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
611Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
612Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
613Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
614Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
615AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
616Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
617decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
618riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
619sonymips mips-sony-*
620sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
621
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622*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
623
624* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
625
626The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
627GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
628command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
629program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
630with GDB".
631
632* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
633
634Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
635libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
636cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
637GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
638shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
639the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
640are created.
641
642Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
643
644* Fixed ISO-C build problems
645
646The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
647non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
648compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
649
650* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
651
652Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
653wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
654
655* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
656
657The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
658permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
659systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
660
661* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
662
663Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
664has been updated to use constant array sizes.
665
666* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
667
668GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
669its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
670panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
671
672* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
673
674When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
675by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
676not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
677
faae5abe 678*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 679
9175c9a3
MC
680* Removed --with-mmalloc
681
682Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
683conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
684
3cc87ec0
MK
685* Changes in AMD64 configurations
686
687The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
688the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
689and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
690you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
691
f0424ef6
MK
692* Revised SPARC target
693
694The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
695FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
696support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
697from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
698(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 699
59659be2
ILT
700* New C++ demangler
701
702GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
703names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
704with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
705programs.
706
9e08b29b
DJ
707* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
708
709GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
710arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
711encountered these.
712
8dfe8985
DC
713* C++ nested types and namespaces
714
715GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
716improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
717is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
718Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
719namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
720"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
721frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
722if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
723GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
724
cced5e27
MK
725* New native configurations
726
727NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 728OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 729OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
730OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
731OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 732
b4b4b794
KI
733* New debugging protocols
734
735M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
736
7989c619
AC
737* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
738
739The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
740and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
741tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
742
5994185b
AC
743* OBSOLETE configurations and files
744
745Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
746been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
747configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
748permanently REMOVED.
749
750Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
751Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
752Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
753Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
754Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
755AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
756Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
757decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
758riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
759sonymips mips-sony-*
760sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 761
0ddabb4c
AC
762* REMOVED configurations and files
763
764SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
765SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
766Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
767Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
768H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
769HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
770HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
771HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
772PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 773386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
774Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
775 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
776 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
777SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
778SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
779Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
780Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 781
c7f1390e
DJ
782*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
783
1fe43d45
AC
784* Objective-C
785
786Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
787integrated into GDB.
788
e6beb428
AC
789* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
790
791DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
792information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
793By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
794backtraces.
795
796The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
797have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
798DWARF 2 CFI support.
799
800* Hosted file I/O.
801
802GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
803file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
804remote protocol documentation for details.
805
806* All targets using the new architecture framework.
807
808All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
809architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
810to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
811ppc32 on ppc64).
812
813* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
814
815GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
816per-thread variables.
817
818* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
819
820GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
821GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
822
823* Separate debug info.
824
825GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
826automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
827of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
828system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
829and optional debug files.
830
831* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
832
833DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
834describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
835debugger.
836
837GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
838for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
839
840* Java
841
842A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
843Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
844considered "useable".
845
85f8f974
DJ
846* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
847
848The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
849commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
850kernel.
851
0fac0b41
DJ
852* GDB supports logging output to a file
853
854There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
855used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 856
6ad8ae5c
DJ
857* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
858
859The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
860disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
861command.
862
e286caf2 863* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
864
865The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
866registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
867
d28f9cdf
DJ
868* Profiling support
869
870A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
871be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
872session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
873"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
874data, for more informative profiling results.
875
da0f9dcd
AC
876* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
877
878The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
879option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 880"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
881
882Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
883removed.
884
fb9b6b35
JJ
885Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
886Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
887Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
888 in a subsequent -var-update.
889
954a4db8
MK
890* New native configurations.
891
892FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
893
6760f9e6
JB
894* Multi-arched targets.
895
b4263afa 896HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 897Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 898
1b831c93
AC
899* OBSOLETE configurations and files
900
901Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
902been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
903configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
904permanently REMOVED.
905
8b0e5691 906Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 907Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 908H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
909HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
910HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
911HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 912PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
913Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
914 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
915 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
916Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
917Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 918
5835abe7
NC
919* REMOVED configurations and files
920
921V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
922Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
923IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
924i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
925i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
926i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
927HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
928 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
929 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
930Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
931Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
932Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
933OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
934I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 935
a094c6fb
AC
936* MIPS $fp behavior changed
937
938The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
939the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
940context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
941address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
942The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
943
299ffc64 944*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 945
46248966
AC
946* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
947
948When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
949`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
950in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
951library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
952shared libs like mad''.
953
b9d14705 954* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 955
b9d14705
DJ
956Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
957the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
958arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
959powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 960
e0e9281e
JB
961* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
962
963GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
964and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
965they expand.
966
dd73b9bb
AC
967The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
968invocations in expression, and shows the result.
969
970The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
971macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
972
e0e9281e
JB
973Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
974information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
975your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
976information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
977
2250ee0c
CV
978* Multi-arched targets.
979
6e3ba3b8
JT
980DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
981DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 982NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 983National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
984Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
985Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 986
cd9bfe15 987* New targets.
e33ce519 988
456f8b9d
DB
989Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
990
e33ce519 991
da8ca43d
JT
992* New native configurations
993
994Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 995SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 996MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 997UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 998
cd9bfe15
AC
999* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1000
1001Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1002been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1003configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1004permanently REMOVED.
1005
92eb23c5 1006Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1007OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1008IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1009Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1010Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1011Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1012i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1013i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1014i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1015HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1016 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1017 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1018I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1019
db034ac5
AC
1020* OBSOLETE languages
1021
1022CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1023
cd9bfe15
AC
1024* REMOVED configurations and files
1025
1026AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1027A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1028AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1029AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1030AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1031
1032testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1033
20f01a46
DH
1034* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1035
1036This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1037commands. The default is 1024.
1038
a5941fbf
MK
1039* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1040
1041Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1042
89743e04
MS
1043* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1044
1045These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1046to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1047from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1048
9fb14e79
JB
1049* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1050
1051The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1052including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1053of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1054
2037aebb
AC
1055*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1056
1057* New targets.
1058
1059Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1060
1061* Bug fixes
1062
1063gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1064mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1065Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1066
1067gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1068dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1069Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1070
1071Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1072Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1073By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1074
1075i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1076avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1077By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1078
37057839 1079*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1080
1a703748
MS
1081* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1082
1083This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1084really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1085In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1086target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1087This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1088(notably embedded) targets.
1089
cefd4ef5
MS
1090* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1091
55241689
AC
1092This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1093process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1094GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1095hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1096
352ed7b4
MS
1097* New command line option
1098
1099GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1100
1101* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1102
1103There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1104command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1105a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1106be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1107open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1108issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1109a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1110it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1111GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1112is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1113
fe419ffc
RE
1114* Changes in ARM configurations.
1115
1116Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1117configuration is fully multi-arch.
1118
eb7cedd9
MK
1119* New native configurations
1120
fe419ffc 1121ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1122x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1123AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1124Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1125
c9f63e6b
CV
1126* New targets
1127
1128Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1129
9b4ff276
AC
1130* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1131
1132Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1133been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1134configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1135permanently REMOVED.
1136
1137AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1138A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1139AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1140AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1141AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1142
b4ceaee6 1143testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1144
e2caac18
AC
1145* REMOVED configurations and files
1146
1147TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1148WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1149PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1150PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1151PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1152Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1153Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1154 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1155SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1156Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1157Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1158ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1159Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1160
c2a727fa
TT
1161* Changes to command line processing
1162
1163The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1164for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1165
467d8519
TT
1166* Changes to key bindings
1167
1168There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1169
7072a954
AC
1170*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1171
1172Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1173
1174Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1175corrupted.
1176
1177Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1178
1179Numerous documentation fixes.
1180
1181Numerous testsuite fixes.
1182
34f47bc4 1183*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1184
1185* New native configurations
1186
1187Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1188x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1189MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1190MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1191ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1192s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1193
bf64bfd6
AC
1194* New targets
1195
def90278 1196Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1197CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1198UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1199
17e78a56 1200* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1201
1202x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1203Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1204Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1205 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1206TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1207WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1208Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1209PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1210PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1211PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1212SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1213Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1214ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1215Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1216
17e78a56
AC
1217stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1218kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1219
7fcca85b
AC
1220Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1221been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1222configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1223permanently REMOVED.
1224
a196c81c 1225* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1226
1227Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1228Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1229Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1230ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1231Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1232ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1233
6d6b80e5 1234* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1235
6d6b80e5 1236GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1237sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1238present.
1239
bf64bfd6
AC
1240* Other news:
1241
e23194cb
EZ
1242* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1243
1244* The MI enabled by default.
1245
1246The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1247revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1248engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1249using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1250which is now deprecated.
1251
1252* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1253
1254GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1255main features are supported:
1256
1257 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1258
1259 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1260 extension;
1261
1262 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1263
1264 - a Pascal expression parser.
1265
1266However, some important features are not yet supported.
1267
1268 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1269
1270 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1271
1272 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1273 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1274
1275 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1276
1277 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1278
1279* Changes in completion.
1280
1281Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1282to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1283users expect at the shell prompt.
1284
1285Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1286`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1287program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1288files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1289be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1290considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1291name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1292
1293`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1294
1295* New platform-independent commands:
1296
1297It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1298hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1299documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1300
1301* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1302
d7275149
MK
1303Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1304revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1305many threads as your system allows you to have.
1306
e23194cb
EZ
1307Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1308
d7275149
MK
1309Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1310multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1311
1312* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1313
1314Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1315
e23194cb
EZ
1316GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1317debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1318supported.)
1319
1320* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1321
1322Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1323breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1324implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1325put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1326and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1327registers.
1328
1329The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1330debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1331watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1332
1333* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1334
1335New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1336the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1337
1338New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1339display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1340IDT.
1341
1342New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1343from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1344New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1345a given linear address.
1346
1347GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1348program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1349which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1350
1351DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1352
6c56c069
EZ
1353It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1354
e23194cb
EZ
1355* Changes in documentation.
1356
1357All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1358Documentation License.
1359
1360Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1361manual.
1362
1363TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1364
1365Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1366manual.
1367
1368The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1369documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1370hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1371
5d6640b1
AC
1372* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1373
1374The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1375``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1376contents of this file.
1377
1a1d8446
AC
1378* gdba.el deleted
1379
1380GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1381
9debab2f 1382*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1383
c63ce875
EZ
1384* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1385
1386Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1387programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1388displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1389greater level of detail.
1390
1391* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1392
1393It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1394bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1395on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1396written.
1397
1398* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1399
1400The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1401necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1402machines ``out of the box''.
1403
1404The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1405possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1406signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1407would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1408interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1409
1410It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1411standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1412even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1413and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1414terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1415
1416The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1417enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1418also works.
1419
1420DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1421GDB.
1422
1423It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1424directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1425times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1426breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1427
ed9a39eb
JM
1428* New native configurations
1429
1430ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1431PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1432
7a292a7a
SS
1433* New targets
1434
96baa820 1435Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1436x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1437PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1438TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1439
085dd6e6
JM
1440* OBSOLETE configurations
1441
1442Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1443Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1444Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1445ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1446Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1447
9debab2f
AC
1448Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1449but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1450these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1451be permanently REMOVED.
1452
5330533d
SS
1453* Gould support removed
1454
1455Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1456
bc9e5bbf
AC
1457* New features for SVR4
1458
1459On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1460without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1461load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1462
1463* Many C++ enhancements
1464
1465C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1466in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1467
adf40b2e
JM
1468* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1469
1470A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1471sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1472with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1473``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1474
1475 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1476 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1477
43e526b9
JM
1478* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1479
1480A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1481expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1482instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1483
1484The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1485added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1486
96baa820
JM
1487* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1488
1489The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1490``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1491include ``set remote P-packet''.
1492
11cf8741
JM
1493* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1494
1495The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1496accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1497``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1498
7876dd43
DB
1499* ``apropos'' command added.
1500
1501The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1502documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1503try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1504
bc9e5bbf
AC
1505* New MI interface
1506
1507A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1508interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1509process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1510"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1511enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1512
1513 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1514
c906108c
SS
1515*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1516
1517* New native configurations
1518
1519HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1520HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1521M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1522
1523* New targets
1524
1525Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1526Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1527Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1528
1529* OBSOLETE configurations
1530
1531Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1532
1533Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1534but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1535these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1536be permanently REMOVED.
1537
1538* ANSI/ISO C
1539
1540As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1541buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1542containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1543use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1544available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1545configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1546information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1547already.
1548
1549* Readline 2.2
1550
1551GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1552
1553* set extension-language
1554
1555You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1556languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1557you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1558 set extension-language .c c++
1559The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1560and their associated languages.
1561
1562* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1563
1564When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1565you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1566PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1567
1568 set processor NAME
1569
1570sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1571following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1572
1573 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1574 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1575 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1576 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1577 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1578 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1579 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1580 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1581 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1582 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1583 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1584
1585At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1586special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1587registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1588only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1589
1590* HP-UX support
1591
1592Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1593more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1594library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1595support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1596for xdb and dbx commands.
1597
1598* Catchpoints
1599
1600HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1601generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1602to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1603
1604This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1605argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1606output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1607
1608* Debugging across forks
1609
1610On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1611in the inferior.
1612
1613* TUI
1614
1615HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1616it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1617configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1618
1619* GDB remote protocol additions
1620
1621A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1622Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1623fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1624allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1625
1626For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1627full 64-bit address. The command
1628
1629 set remoteaddresssize 32
1630
1631can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1632the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1633will be discarded.
1634
1635In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1636command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1637
1638 maint packet heythere
1639
1640sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1641disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1642time.
1643
1644The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1645target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1646downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1647
1648* Tracing can collect general expressions
1649
1650You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1651further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1652doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1653
1654* mask-address variable for Mips
1655
1656For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1657a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1658of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1659
1660* Higher serial baud rates
1661
1662GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1663230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1664to achieve all of these rates.)
1665
1666* i960 simulator
1667
1668The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1669builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1670
1671
1672*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1673
1674* New native configurations
1675
1676Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1677Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1678Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1679PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1680PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1681Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1682Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1683
1684* New targets
1685
1686Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1687Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1688Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1689Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1690MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1691MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1692MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1693Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1694Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1695Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1696NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1697
1698* New debugging protocols
1699
1700ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1701M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1702DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1703PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1704PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1705Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1706
1707* DWARF 2
1708
1709All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1710format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1711information.
1712
1713* Java frontend
1714
1715GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1716only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1717
1718* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1719
1720For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1721loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1722locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1723
1724* Live range splitting
1725
1726GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1727range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1728more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1729
1730* Hurd support
1731
1732GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1733updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1734
1735* ARM Thumb support
1736
1737GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1738instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1739instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1740accordingly.
1741
1742* MIPS16 support
1743
1744GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1745instruction set.
1746
1747* Overlay support
1748
1749GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1750linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1751will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1752control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1753additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1754in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1755
1756* info symbol
1757
1758The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1759the symbol at the specified address.
1760
1761* Trace support
1762
1763The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1764asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1765extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1766includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1767file tracepoint.c for more details.
1768
1769* MIPS simulator
1770
1771Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1772by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1773of most MIPS variants.
1774
1775* Sparc simulator
1776
1777Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1778by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1779Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1780
1781* set architecture
1782
1783For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1784basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1785architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1786the possible architectures.
1787
1788*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1789
1790* New native configurations
1791
1792Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1793M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1794PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1795PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1796PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1797RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1798
1799* New targets
1800
1801ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1802I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1803MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1804MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1805PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1806Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1807Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1808
1809* PowerPC simulator
1810
1811The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1812contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1813PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1814basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1815performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1816
1817* Solaris 2.5
1818
1819GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1820
1821* Windows 95/NT native
1822
1823GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1824To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1825which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1826Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1827ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1828
1829* dont-repeat command
1830
1831If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1832command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1833useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1834extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1835
1836* Send break instead of ^C
1837
1838The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1839rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1840GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1841
1842* Remote protocol timeout
1843
1844The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1845that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1846to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1847
1848* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1849
1850By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1851loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1852stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1853when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1854in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1855
1856Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1857/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1858automatically on hpux10.
1859
1860* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1861
1862Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1863
1864* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1865
1866When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1867may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1868the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1869every character. The default value is 1050.
1870
1871* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1872
1873If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1874a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1875replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1876details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1877remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1878to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1879
1880* Speedups for remote debugging
1881
1882GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1883the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1884and more efficient S-record downloading.
1885
1886* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1887
1888GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1889Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1890
1891*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1892
1893* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1894
1895The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1896can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1897
1898* Remote targets use caching
1899
1900Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1901remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1902it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1903debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1904off' turns the the data cache off.
1905
1906* Remote targets may have threads
1907
1908The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1909in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1910gdb/remote.c for details.
1911
1912* NetROM support
1913
1914If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1915support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1916acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1917write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1918support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1919another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1920sequence is something like
1921
1922 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1923 load <prog>
1924 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1925
1926* Macintosh host
1927
1928GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1929may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1930it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1931available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1932device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1933directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1934scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1935mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1936
1937* Autoconf
1938
1939GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1940but does simplify configuration and building.
1941
1942* hpux10
1943
1944GDB now supports hpux10.
1945
1946*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1947
1948* New native configurations
1949
1950x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1951x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1952NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1953Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1954
1955* New targets
1956
1957A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1958HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1959CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1960PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1961WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1962
1963* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1964
1965GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1966possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1967filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1968the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1969if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1970
1971* Arguments to user-defined commands
1972
1973User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1974Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1975trivial example:
1976define adder
1977 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1978
1979To execute the command use:
1980adder 1 2 3
1981
1982Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1983Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1984use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1985
1986* New `if' and `while' commands
1987
1988This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1989commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1990expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1991execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1992terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1993`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1994if the expression is zero.
1995
1996* Fortran source language mode
1997
1998GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1999Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2000variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2001with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2002Fortran compilers.
2003
2004* Better HPUX support
2005
2006Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2007running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2008processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2009for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2010that behavior do the following before running the program:
2011
2012 adb -w a.out
2013 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2014 control-d
2015
2016This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2017To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2018
2019 adb -w a.out
2020 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2021 control-d
2022
2023You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2024the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2025external linkage.
2026
2027GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2028HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2029
2030* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2031
2032You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2033commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2034current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2035"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2036associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2037configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2038
2039* New DOS host serial code
2040
2041This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2042no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2043a PC's serial port.
2044
2045*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2046
2047* New "complete" command
2048
2049This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2050were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2051
2052* Trailing space optional in prompt
2053
2054"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2055allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2056
2057* Breakpoint hit counts
2058
2059"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2060has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2061can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2062to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2063less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2064that breakpoint.
2065
2066* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2067
2068"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2069an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2070arrays actually contain only short strings.
2071
2072* Shared library breakpoints
2073
2074In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2075breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2076
2077* Hardware watchpoints
2078
2079There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2080targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2081
55241689 2082Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2083
2084* Annotations
2085
2086Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2087and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2088
2089* Improved Irix 5 support
2090
2091GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2092
2093* Improved HPPA support
2094
2095GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2096
2097* New native configurations
2098
2099Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2100HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2101Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2102RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2103
2104* New targets
2105
2106OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2107MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2108Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2109
2110* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2111
2112There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2113This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2114
2115* Fixes
2116
2117As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2118and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2119
2120*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2121
2122* Irix 5 is now supported
2123
2124* HPPA support
2125
2126GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2127to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2128GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2129of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2130can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2131
2132
2133*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2134
2135* User visible changes:
2136
2137* Remote Debugging
2138
2139The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2140target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2141debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2142integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2143debugging info for the mips target).
2144
2145* DEC Alpha native support
2146
2147GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2148debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2149work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2150Alpha-specific notes.
2151
2152* Preliminary thread implementation
2153
2154GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2155
2156* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2157
2158This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2159to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2160for details).
2161
2162* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2163
2164This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2165mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2166call methods, ...etc.
2167
2168*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2169
2170 * User visible changes:
2171
2172Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2173supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2174other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2175somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2176
2177Filename completion now works.
2178
2179When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2180arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2181addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2182
2183All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2184vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2185should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2186your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2187to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2188
2189 * DEC alpha support
2190
2191This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2192cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2193
2194
2195*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2196
2197 * Testsuite
2198
2199This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2200The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2201via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2202
2203 * C++ demangling
2204
2205'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2206emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2207Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2208disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2209use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2210
2211 * Simulators
2212
2213GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2214So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2215Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2216
2217 * New targets supported
2218
2219H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2220H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2221SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2222Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2223IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2224
2225Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2226version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2227GO32 memory extender.
2228
2229 * New remote protocols
2230
2231MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2232
2233 * New source languages supported
2234
2235This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2236used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2237into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2238
2239
2240*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2241
2242 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2243
2244GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2245version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2246University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2247compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2248format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2249(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2250
2251Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2252
2253 * Faster and better demangling
2254
2255We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2256demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2257character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2258only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2259This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2260increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2261symbol lookups.
2262
2263`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2264from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2265compiler does not actually implement.
2266
2267 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2268
2269In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2270inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2271recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2272very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2273The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2274circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2275fix.
2276
2277The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2278release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2279
2280 * Improved configure script
2281
2282The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2283you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2284host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2285done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2286
2287We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2288version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2289`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2290The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2291only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2292We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2293
2294 * Documentation improvements
2295
2296There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2297produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2298before submitting changes.
2299
2300The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2301M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2302`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2303you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2304a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2305
2306*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2307We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2308been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2309or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2310`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2311around this problem.
2312
2313 * New features
2314
2315GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2316the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2317`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2318the target program.
2319
2320The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2321how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2322
2323 * New native hosts supported
2324
2325HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2326386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2327
2328 * New targets supported
2329
2330AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2331
2332 * New file formats supported
2333
2334BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2335HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2336
2337 * Major bug fixes
2338
2339Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2340
2341We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2342printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2343
2344We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2345for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2346release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2347
2348You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2349will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2350
2351We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2352for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2353especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2354libraries.
2355
2356The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2357information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2358command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2359any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2360when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2361
2362 * Internal improvements
2363
2364GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2365debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2366
2367GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2368Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2369symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2370contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2371shared code that handles any of them.
2372
2373 * New command line options
2374
2375We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2376
2377 * Mmalloc licensing
2378
2379The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2380General Public License.
2381
2382*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2383
2384 * Host/native/target split
2385
2386GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2387hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2388target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2389local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2390ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2391
2392The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2393GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2394is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2395code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2396any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2397built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2398handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2399
2400GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2401It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2402plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2403
2404 * New hosts supported
2405
2406HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2407386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2408386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2409
2410 * New targets supported
2411
2412Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
241368030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2414
2415 * New native hosts supported
2416
2417386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2418 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2419386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2420
2421 * New file formats supported
2422
2423BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2424supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2425format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2426
2427 * New commands
2428
2429`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2430`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2431These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2432
2433`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2434
2435You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2436scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2437prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2438executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2439
2440 * C++ improvements
2441
2442We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2443info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2444symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2445
2446Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2447
2448 * Major bug fixes
2449
2450The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2451fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2452by the compiler.
2453
2454We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2455support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2456
2457John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2458slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2459that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2460purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2461the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2462mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2463
2464Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2465about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2466completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2467we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2468
2469 * AMD 29k support
2470
2471A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2472specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2473calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2474usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2475in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2476
2477We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2478Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2479of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2480resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2481
2482 * Remote interfaces
2483
2484We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2485with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2486message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2487This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2488needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2489breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2490each instruction being stepped through.
2491
2492The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2493registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2494
2495There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2496find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2497Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2498processor with a serial port.
2499
2500 * Configuration
2501
2502Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2503`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2504supported, and what files each one uses.
2505
2506 * Library changes
2507
2508There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2509disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2510Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2511disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2512
2513The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2514Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2515can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2516grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2517
2518 * Documentation
2519
2520The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2521reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2522as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2523encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2524system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2525bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2526
2527And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2528
2529
2530*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2531
2532 * Better support for C++ function names
2533
2534GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2535names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2536(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2537single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2538Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2539
2540GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2541the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2542You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2543lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2544for the list of formats.
2545
2546 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2547
2548Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2549C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2550directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2551can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2552usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2553about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2554this problem.)
2555
2556 * New 'maintenance' command
2557
2558All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2559the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2560can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2561
2562 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2563 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2564 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2565 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2566 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2567 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2568
2569The following commands are new:
2570
2571 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2572 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2573 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2574
2575 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2576
2577We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2578(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2579be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2580read after argv processing.
2581
2582 * New hosts supported
2583
2584Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2585
55241689 2586GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2587
2588We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2589is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2590for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2591masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2592fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2593It costs extra.
2594
2595 * New targets supported
2596
2597Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2598
2599 * More smarts about finding #include files
2600
2601GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2602all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2603greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2604especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2605the one that contains your sources.
2606
2607We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2608breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2609try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2610
2611 * Interesting infernals change
2612
2613GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2614section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2615target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2616stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2617
2618 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2619
2620There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2621 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2622 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2623
2624See the ChangeLog for details.
2625
2626*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2627
2628 * New machines supported (host and target)
2629
2630IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2631
2632SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2633
2634 * New malloc package
2635
2636GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2637Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2638capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2639This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2640pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2641more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2642
2643 * info proc
2644
2645The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2646'help info proc' for details.
2647
2648 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2649
2650The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2651Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2652possible.
2653
2654 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2655
2656Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2657support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2658conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2659environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2660that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2661in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2662
2663 * Cross byte order fixes
2664
2665Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2666targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2667
2668 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2669
2670If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2671system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2672`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2673program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2674called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2675Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2676and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2677the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2678option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2679starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2680
2681You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2682the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2683information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2684slower, but makes future operations faster.
2685
2686The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2687build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2688A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2689use is:
2690
2691 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2692
2693The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2694It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2695shared across multiple host platforms.
2696
2697 * longjmp() handling
2698
2699GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2700siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2701all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2702platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2703
2704 * Solaris 2.0
2705
2706Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2707this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2708reading symbols.
2709
2710 * Bug fixes
2711
2712As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2713People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2714crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2715
2716*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2717
2718 * New machines supported (host and target)
2719
2720SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2721 (except core files)
2722BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2723Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2724
2725 * New machines supported (target)
2726
2727AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2728
2729 * C++ support
2730
2731GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2732The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2733per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2734
2735GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2736`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2737extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2738good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2739will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2740released.
2741
2742 * New features for SVR4
2743
2744GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2745shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2746only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2747
2748The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2749on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2750it prints the address mappings of the process.
2751
2752If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2753bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2754
2755 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2756
2757Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2758now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2759skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2760make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2761same code linked statically.
2762
2763 * New Getopt
2764
2765GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2766version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2767continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2768Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2769added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2770future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2771
2772 * Bugs fixed
2773
2774The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2775Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2776See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2777
2778
2779*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2780
2781 * New machines supported (host and target)
2782
2783Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2784NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2785Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2786
2787 * Almost SCO Unix support
2788
2789We had hoped to support:
2790SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2791(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2792that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2793about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2794
2795 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2796
2797GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2798debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2799is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2800send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2801reqired (if any).
2802
2803 * New Readline
2804
2805GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2806is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2807required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2808
2809 * Bugs fixed
2810
2811The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2812Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2813See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2814
2815 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2816
2817GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2818supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2819symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2820
2821Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2822mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2823debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2824mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2825version 2.
2826
2827Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2828really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2829line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2830variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2831situation somewhat.
2832
2833When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2834However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2835methods.
2836
2837We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2838DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2839encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2840
2841
2842*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2843
2844 * Improved configuration
2845
2846Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2847Porting BFD is simpler.
2848
2849 * Stepping improved
2850
2851The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2852of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2853in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2854function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2855
2856 * Bug fixing
2857
2858Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2859
2860 * New host supported (not target)
2861
2862Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2863
2864
2865*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2866
2867 * Multiple source language support
2868
2869GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2870It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2871and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2872language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2873You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2874`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2875
2876 * GDB and Modula-2
2877
2878GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2879currently under development at the State University of New York at
2880Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2881continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2882
2883Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2884debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2885symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2886
2887There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2888in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2889
2890 * set write on/off
2891
2892GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2893a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2894the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2895by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2896effect immediately.
2897
2898 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2899
2900When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2901shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2902The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2903examining core files.
2904
2905 * set listsize
2906
2907You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2908The default is 10.
2909
2910 * New machines supported (host and target)
2911
2912SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2913Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2914Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2915
2916 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2917
2918IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2919
2920 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2921
2922AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2923AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2924Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2925
2926 * New remote interfaces
2927
2928AMD 29000 Adapt
2929AMD 29000 Minimon
2930
2931
2932*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2933
2934 * New Facilities
2935
2936Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2937
2938Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2939target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2940is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2941remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2942remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2943also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2944using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2945stub on the target system.
2946
2947New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2948
2949GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2950library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2951object file types such as a.out and coff.
2952
2953There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2954refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2955
2956
2957 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2958
2959All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2960by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2961
2962For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2963``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2964Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2965
2966What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2967print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2968will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2969all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2970
2971confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2972 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2973 it is already running. Default is ON.
2974
2975editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2976 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2977 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2978 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2979 Default is ON.
2980
2981history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2982 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2983 or the value of the environment variable
2984 GDBHISTFILE.
2985
2986history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2987 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2988 HISTSIZE.
2989
2990history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2991 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2992 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2993
2994history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2995 history expansion will be performed on
2996 command line input. The default is OFF.
2997
2998radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2999 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3000 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3001
3002height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3003 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3004 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3005 variable TERM.
3006
3007width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3008 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3009 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3010 variable TERM.
3011
3012Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3013``set width'' instead.
3014
3015print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3016 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3017 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3018 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3019
3020print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3021 is OFF.
3022
3023print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3024 "raw" form if off.
3025
3026print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3027 like instructions.
3028
3029print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3030
3031
3032 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3033
3034The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3035new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3036are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3037window.
3038
3039
3040 * Support for Shared Libraries
3041
3042GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3043Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3044before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3045happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3046At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3047from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3048shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3049It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3050
3051sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3052 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3053 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3054
3055info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3056
3057
3058 * Watchpoints
3059
3060A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3061expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3062tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3063quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3064problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3065more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3066
3067watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3068
3069info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3070
3071delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3072disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3073enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3074
3075
3076 * C++ multiple inheritance
3077
3078When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3079for C++ programs.
3080
3081 * C++ exception handling
3082
3083Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3084ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3085the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3086handler's context).
3087
3088catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3089 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3090 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3091
3092info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3093 current stack frame.
3094
3095
3096 * Minor command changes
3097
3098The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3099command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3100is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3101
3102The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3103at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3104frames without printing.
3105
3106 * New directory command
3107
3108'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3109The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3110about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3111with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3112find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3113
3114 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3115
3116For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3117for more details.
3118
3119GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3120two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3121Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3122where the program that you are debugging will run.
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