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[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
6dd09645
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.6
5
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6* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
7recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
8is not supported.
9
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10* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
11frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
12
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13* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1432-bit or 64-bit register values.
15
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16* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
17
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18* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
19target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
20a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
21
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22* Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
23 of numbers.
24
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25* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
26for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
27only ARM).
28
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29* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
30iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 31
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32* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
33ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
34has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
35
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36* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
37
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38* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
39
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40* New commands
41
42set mem inaccessible-by-default
43show mem inaccessible-by-default
44 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
45 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
46 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
47 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
48 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
49
50set breakpoint auto-hw
51show breakpoint auto-hw
52 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
53 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
54 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
55 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
56 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
57 including "next" and "finish".
58
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59catch exception
60catch exception unhandled
61 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
62
63catch assert
64 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
65
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66set sysroot
67show sysroot
68 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
69 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
70 an alias to "set sysroot".
71
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72* New native configurations
73
74OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
75
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76set tdesc filename
77unset tdesc filename
78show tdesc filename
79 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
80 not query the target for its built-in description.
81
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82* New targets
83
54fe9172 84OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 85MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 86Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 87
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88* New remote packets
89
90QPassSignals:
91 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
92 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
93
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94qXfer:features:read:
95 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
96 features.
6dd09645 97
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98* Removed targets
99
100Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
101
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102alpha*-*-osf1*
103alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 104d10v-*-*
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105hppa*-*-hiux*
106i[34567]86-ncr-*
107i[34567]86-*-dgux*
108i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
109i[34567]86-*-netware*
110i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
111i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
112i[34567]86-*-sco*
113i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
114i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
115i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
116i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
117i[34567]86-*-unixware*
118i[34567]86-*-sysv*
119i[34567]86-*-isc*
120m68*-cisco*-*
121m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 122mips*-*-pe
483367ee 123rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 124sh*-*-pe
483367ee 125
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126* Other removed features
127
128target abug
129target cpu32bug
130target est
131target rom68k
132
133 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
134
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135target hms
136target e7000
137target sh3
138target sh3e
139
140 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
141 H8/300.
142
143target ocd
144
145 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
146 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
147 interfaces.
148
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149DWARF 1 support
150
151 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
152 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
153
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154Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
155
156 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
157 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
158 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
159 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
160
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161MIPS ".pdr" sections
162
163 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
164 in debugging information.
165
166Scheme support
167
168 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
169 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
170
6dd09645 171*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 172
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173* New targets
174
175Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 176Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 177
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178* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
179(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
180running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
181
182* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
183Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
184supported.
185
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186* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
187broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
188
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189* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
190stub provides the required support.
191
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192* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
193longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
194
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195* New commands
196
197set substitute-path
198unset substitute-path
199show substitute-path
200 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
201 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
202 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
203 between compilation and debugging.
204
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205set trace-commands
206show trace-commands
207 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
208 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
209 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
210
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211* REMOVED features
212
213The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
214
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215Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
216an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
217
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218The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
219
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220* New remote packets
221
222qSupported:
223 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
224 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
225 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
226 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
227 target.
228
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229qXfer:auxv:read:
230 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
231 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
232
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233qXfer:memory-map:read:
234 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
235 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
236
237vFlashErase:
238vFlashWrite:
239vFlashDone:
240 Erase and program a flash memory device.
241
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242* Removed remote packets
243
244qPart:auxv:read:
245 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
246 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
247
e374b601 248*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 249
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250* New targets
251
252Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
253
254Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
255
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256* New commands
257
258init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
259 only if it doesn't already have a value.
260
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261The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
262
263checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
264
265restart <n> Return the program state to a
266 previously saved state.
267
268info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
269
270delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
271
272set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
273 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
274
275info forks List forks of the user program that
276 are available to be debugged.
277
278fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
279 forks of the user program that are
280 available to be debugged.
281
282delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
283 that are available to be debugged (and
284 kill the forked process).
285
286detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
287 that are available to be debugged (and
288 allow the process to continue).
289
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290* New architecture
291
292Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
293
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294* Improved Windows host support
295
296GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
297native console support, and remote communications using either
298network sockets or serial ports.
299
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300* Improved Modula-2 language support
301
302GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
303basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
304pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
305printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
306written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
307GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
308
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309* REMOVED features
310
311The ARM rdi-share module.
312
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313The Netware NLM debug server.
314
53e5f3cf 315*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 316
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317* New native configurations
318
02a677ac 319OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
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320OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
321
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322* New targets
323
324Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
325
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326* New command line options
327
328--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
329--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
330 the child (debugged) program exited with.
331--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
332 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
333 specified multiple times and in conjunction
334 with the --command (-x) option.
335
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336* Deprecated commands removed
337
338The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
339removed:
340
341 Command Replacement
342 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
343 othernames set arm disassembler
344 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
345 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
346 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
347 regs info registers
348
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349* New BSD user-level threads support
350
351It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
352library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
353configurations are:
354
355FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
356FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
357OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
358
359Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
360are not yet supported.
361
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362* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
363(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
364
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365* REMOVED configurations and files
366
367VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 368Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 369National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 370
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371* New "set print array-indexes" command
372
373After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
374when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
375behavior.
376
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377* VAX floating point support
378
379GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
380
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381* User-defined command support
382
383In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
384to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
385section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
386
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387*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
388
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389* New command line option
390
391GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
392debugging.
393
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394* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
395
396GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
397information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
398by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
399proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
400to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 401
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402* Internationalization
403
404When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
405internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
406continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
407
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408* Ada
409
410Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
411implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
412into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
413
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414* New native configurations
415
416GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
417
418* Remote 'p' packet
419
420GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
421packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
422
423* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
424
425GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
426The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
427features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
428i386 application).
429
430GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
431compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
432continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
433configurations:
434
435hppa-*-hpux
436ia64-*-aix
437mips-*-irix*
438*-*-lynx
439mips-*-linux-gnu
440sds protocol
441xdr protocol
442powerpc bdm protocol
443
444Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
445made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
446
447* OBSOLETE configurations and files
448
449Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
450been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
451configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
452permanently REMOVED.
453
454h8300-*-*
455mcore-*-*
456mn10300-*-*
457ns32k-*-*
458sh64-*-*
459v850-*-*
460
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461*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
462
463* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
464
465When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
466heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
467been fixed.
468
469* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
470
471When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
472fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
473IRIX long double values).
474
475* VAX and "next"
476
477A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
478command. This problem has been fixed.
479
860660cb 480*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 481
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AC
482* Fix for ``many threads''
483
484On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
485rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
486error message:
487
488 ptrace: No such process.
489 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
490
491This problem has been fixed.
492
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493* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
494
495Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
496GDB to dump core).
497
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498* New ``start'' command.
499
500This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
501
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502* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
503
504Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
505live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
506platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
507
508FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
509FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
510NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
511NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
512NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
513OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
514OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
515OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
516OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
517
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518* Signal trampoline code overhauled
519
520Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
521These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
522of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
523call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
524signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
525
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526Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
527features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
528include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 529
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530* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
531
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532* New native configurations
533
97dc871c 534GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 535OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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536OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
537OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 538OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 539NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 540OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 541
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542* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
543
544GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
545The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
546including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
547migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
548compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
549work, was also included.
550
551GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
552module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
553
554h8300-*-*
555mcore-*-*
556mn10300-*-*
557ns32k-*-*
558sh64-*-*
559v850-*-*
560xstormy16-*-*
561
562Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
563made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
564
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565* REMOVED configurations and files
566
567Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
568Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
569Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
570Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
571Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
572AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
573Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
574decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
575riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
576sonymips mips-sony-*
577sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
578
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579*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
580
581* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
582
583The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
584GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
585command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
586program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
587with GDB".
588
589* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
590
591Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
592libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
593cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
594GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
595shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
596the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
597are created.
598
599Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
600
601* Fixed ISO-C build problems
602
603The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
604non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
605compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
606
607* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
608
609Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
610wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
611
612* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
613
614The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
615permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
616systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
617
618* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
619
620Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
621has been updated to use constant array sizes.
622
623* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
624
625GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
626its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
627panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
628
629* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
630
631When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
632by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
633not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
634
faae5abe 635*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 636
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637* Removed --with-mmalloc
638
639Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
640conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
641
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642* Changes in AMD64 configurations
643
644The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
645the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
646and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
647you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
648
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649* Revised SPARC target
650
651The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
652FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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MK
653support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
654from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
655(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 656
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657* New C++ demangler
658
659GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
660names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
661with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
662programs.
663
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664* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
665
666GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
667arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
668encountered these.
669
8dfe8985
DC
670* C++ nested types and namespaces
671
672GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
673improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
674is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
675Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
676namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
677"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
678frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
679if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
680GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
681
cced5e27
MK
682* New native configurations
683
684NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 685OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 686OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
687OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
688OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 689
b4b4b794
KI
690* New debugging protocols
691
692M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
693
7989c619
AC
694* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
695
696The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
697and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
698tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
699
5994185b
AC
700* OBSOLETE configurations and files
701
702Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
703been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
704configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
705permanently REMOVED.
706
707Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
708Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
709Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
710Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
711Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
712AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
713Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
714decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
715riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
716sonymips mips-sony-*
717sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 718
0ddabb4c
AC
719* REMOVED configurations and files
720
721SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
722SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
723Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
724Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
725H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
726HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
727HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
728HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
729PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 730386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
731Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
732 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
733 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
734SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
735SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
736Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
737Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 738
c7f1390e
DJ
739*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
740
1fe43d45
AC
741* Objective-C
742
743Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
744integrated into GDB.
745
e6beb428
AC
746* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
747
748DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
749information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
750By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
751backtraces.
752
753The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
754have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
755DWARF 2 CFI support.
756
757* Hosted file I/O.
758
759GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
760file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
761remote protocol documentation for details.
762
763* All targets using the new architecture framework.
764
765All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
766architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
767to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
768ppc32 on ppc64).
769
770* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
771
772GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
773per-thread variables.
774
775* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
776
777GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
778GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
779
780* Separate debug info.
781
782GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
783automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
784of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
785system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
786and optional debug files.
787
788* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
789
790DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
791describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
792debugger.
793
794GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
795for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
796
797* Java
798
799A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
800Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
801considered "useable".
802
85f8f974
DJ
803* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
804
805The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
806commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
807kernel.
808
0fac0b41
DJ
809* GDB supports logging output to a file
810
811There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
812used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 813
6ad8ae5c
DJ
814* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
815
816The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
817disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
818command.
819
e286caf2 820* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
821
822The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
823registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
824
d28f9cdf
DJ
825* Profiling support
826
827A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
828be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
829session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
830"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
831data, for more informative profiling results.
832
da0f9dcd
AC
833* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
834
835The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
836option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 837"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
838
839Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
840removed.
841
fb9b6b35
JJ
842Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
843Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
844Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
845 in a subsequent -var-update.
846
954a4db8
MK
847* New native configurations.
848
849FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
850
6760f9e6
JB
851* Multi-arched targets.
852
b4263afa 853HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 854Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 855
1b831c93
AC
856* OBSOLETE configurations and files
857
858Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
859been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
860configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
861permanently REMOVED.
862
8b0e5691 863Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 864Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 865H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
866HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
867HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
868HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 869PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
870Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
871 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
872 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
873Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
874Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 875
5835abe7
NC
876* REMOVED configurations and files
877
878V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
879Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
880IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
881i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
882i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
883i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
884HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
885 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
886 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
887Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
888Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
889Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
890OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
891I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 892
a094c6fb
AC
893* MIPS $fp behavior changed
894
895The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
896the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
897context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
898address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
899The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
900
299ffc64 901*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 902
46248966
AC
903* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
904
905When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
906`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
907in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
908library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
909shared libs like mad''.
910
b9d14705 911* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 912
b9d14705
DJ
913Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
914the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
915arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
916powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 917
e0e9281e
JB
918* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
919
920GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
921and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
922they expand.
923
dd73b9bb
AC
924The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
925invocations in expression, and shows the result.
926
927The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
928macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
929
e0e9281e
JB
930Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
931information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
932your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
933information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
934
2250ee0c
CV
935* Multi-arched targets.
936
6e3ba3b8
JT
937DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
938DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 939NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 940National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
941Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
942Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 943
cd9bfe15 944* New targets.
e33ce519 945
456f8b9d
DB
946Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
947
e33ce519 948
da8ca43d
JT
949* New native configurations
950
951Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 952SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 953MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 954UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 955
cd9bfe15
AC
956* OBSOLETE configurations and files
957
958Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
959been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
960configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
961permanently REMOVED.
962
92eb23c5 963Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 964OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 965IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 966Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 967Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 968Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
969i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
970i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
971i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
972HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
973 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
974 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 975I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 976
db034ac5
AC
977* OBSOLETE languages
978
979CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
980
cd9bfe15
AC
981* REMOVED configurations and files
982
983AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
984A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
985AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
986AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
987AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
988
989testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
990
20f01a46
DH
991* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
992
993This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
994commands. The default is 1024.
995
a5941fbf
MK
996* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
997
998Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
999
89743e04
MS
1000* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1001
1002These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1003to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1004from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1005
9fb14e79
JB
1006* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1007
1008The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1009including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1010of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1011
2037aebb
AC
1012*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1013
1014* New targets.
1015
1016Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1017
1018* Bug fixes
1019
1020gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1021mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1022Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1023
1024gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1025dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1026Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1027
1028Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1029Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1030By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1031
1032i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1033avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1034By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1035
37057839 1036*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1037
1a703748
MS
1038* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1039
1040This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1041really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1042In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1043target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1044This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1045(notably embedded) targets.
1046
cefd4ef5
MS
1047* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1048
55241689
AC
1049This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1050process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1051GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1052hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1053
352ed7b4
MS
1054* New command line option
1055
1056GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1057
1058* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1059
1060There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1061command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1062a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1063be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1064open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1065issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1066a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1067it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1068GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1069is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1070
fe419ffc
RE
1071* Changes in ARM configurations.
1072
1073Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1074configuration is fully multi-arch.
1075
eb7cedd9
MK
1076* New native configurations
1077
fe419ffc 1078ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1079x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1080AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1081Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1082
c9f63e6b
CV
1083* New targets
1084
1085Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1086
9b4ff276
AC
1087* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1088
1089Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1090been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1091configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1092permanently REMOVED.
1093
1094AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1095A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1096AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1097AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1098AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1099
b4ceaee6 1100testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1101
e2caac18
AC
1102* REMOVED configurations and files
1103
1104TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1105WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1106PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1107PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1108PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1109Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1110Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1111 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1112SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1113Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1114Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1115ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1116Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1117
c2a727fa
TT
1118* Changes to command line processing
1119
1120The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1121for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1122
467d8519
TT
1123* Changes to key bindings
1124
1125There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1126
7072a954
AC
1127*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1128
1129Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1130
1131Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1132corrupted.
1133
1134Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1135
1136Numerous documentation fixes.
1137
1138Numerous testsuite fixes.
1139
34f47bc4 1140*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1141
1142* New native configurations
1143
1144Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1145x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1146MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1147MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1148ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1149s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1150
bf64bfd6
AC
1151* New targets
1152
def90278 1153Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1154CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1155UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1156
17e78a56 1157* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1158
1159x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1160Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1161Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1162 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1163TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1164WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1165Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1166PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1167PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1168PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1169SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1170Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1171ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1172Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1173
17e78a56
AC
1174stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1175kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1176
7fcca85b
AC
1177Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1178been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1179configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1180permanently REMOVED.
1181
a196c81c 1182* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1183
1184Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1185Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1186Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1187ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1188Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1189ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1190
6d6b80e5 1191* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1192
6d6b80e5 1193GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1194sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1195present.
1196
bf64bfd6
AC
1197* Other news:
1198
e23194cb
EZ
1199* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1200
1201* The MI enabled by default.
1202
1203The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1204revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1205engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1206using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1207which is now deprecated.
1208
1209* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1210
1211GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1212main features are supported:
1213
1214 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1215
1216 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1217 extension;
1218
1219 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1220
1221 - a Pascal expression parser.
1222
1223However, some important features are not yet supported.
1224
1225 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1226
1227 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1228
1229 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1230 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1231
1232 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1233
1234 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1235
1236* Changes in completion.
1237
1238Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1239to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1240users expect at the shell prompt.
1241
1242Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1243`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1244program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1245files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1246be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1247considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1248name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1249
1250`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1251
1252* New platform-independent commands:
1253
1254It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1255hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1256documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1257
1258* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1259
d7275149
MK
1260Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1261revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1262many threads as your system allows you to have.
1263
e23194cb
EZ
1264Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1265
d7275149
MK
1266Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1267multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1268
1269* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1270
1271Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1272
e23194cb
EZ
1273GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1274debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1275supported.)
1276
1277* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1278
1279Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1280breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1281implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1282put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1283and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1284registers.
1285
1286The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1287debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1288watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1289
1290* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1291
1292New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1293the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1294
1295New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1296display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1297IDT.
1298
1299New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1300from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1301New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1302a given linear address.
1303
1304GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1305program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1306which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1307
1308DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1309
6c56c069
EZ
1310It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1311
e23194cb
EZ
1312* Changes in documentation.
1313
1314All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1315Documentation License.
1316
1317Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1318manual.
1319
1320TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1321
1322Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1323manual.
1324
1325The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1326documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1327hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1328
5d6640b1
AC
1329* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1330
1331The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1332``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1333contents of this file.
1334
1a1d8446
AC
1335* gdba.el deleted
1336
1337GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1338
9debab2f 1339*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1340
c63ce875
EZ
1341* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1342
1343Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1344programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1345displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1346greater level of detail.
1347
1348* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1349
1350It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1351bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1352on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1353written.
1354
1355* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1356
1357The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1358necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1359machines ``out of the box''.
1360
1361The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1362possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1363signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1364would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1365interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1366
1367It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1368standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1369even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1370and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1371terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1372
1373The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1374enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1375also works.
1376
1377DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1378GDB.
1379
1380It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1381directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1382times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1383breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1384
ed9a39eb
JM
1385* New native configurations
1386
1387ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1388PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1389
7a292a7a
SS
1390* New targets
1391
96baa820 1392Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1393x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1394PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1395TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1396
085dd6e6
JM
1397* OBSOLETE configurations
1398
1399Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1400Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1401Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1402ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1403Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1404
9debab2f
AC
1405Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1406but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1407these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1408be permanently REMOVED.
1409
5330533d
SS
1410* Gould support removed
1411
1412Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1413
bc9e5bbf
AC
1414* New features for SVR4
1415
1416On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1417without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1418load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1419
1420* Many C++ enhancements
1421
1422C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1423in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1424
adf40b2e
JM
1425* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1426
1427A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1428sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1429with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1430``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1431
1432 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1433 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1434
43e526b9
JM
1435* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1436
1437A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1438expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1439instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1440
1441The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1442added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1443
96baa820
JM
1444* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1445
1446The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1447``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1448include ``set remote P-packet''.
1449
11cf8741
JM
1450* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1451
1452The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1453accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1454``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1455
7876dd43
DB
1456* ``apropos'' command added.
1457
1458The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1459documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1460try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1461
bc9e5bbf
AC
1462* New MI interface
1463
1464A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1465interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1466process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1467"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1468enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1469
1470 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1471
c906108c
SS
1472*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1473
1474* New native configurations
1475
1476HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1477HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1478M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1479
1480* New targets
1481
1482Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1483Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1484Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1485
1486* OBSOLETE configurations
1487
1488Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1489
1490Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1491but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1492these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1493be permanently REMOVED.
1494
1495* ANSI/ISO C
1496
1497As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1498buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1499containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1500use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1501available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1502configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1503information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1504already.
1505
1506* Readline 2.2
1507
1508GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1509
1510* set extension-language
1511
1512You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1513languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1514you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1515 set extension-language .c c++
1516The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1517and their associated languages.
1518
1519* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1520
1521When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1522you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1523PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1524
1525 set processor NAME
1526
1527sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1528following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1529
1530 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1531 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1532 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1533 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1534 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1535 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1536 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1537 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1538 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1539 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1540 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1541
1542At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1543special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1544registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1545only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1546
1547* HP-UX support
1548
1549Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1550more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1551library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1552support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1553for xdb and dbx commands.
1554
1555* Catchpoints
1556
1557HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1558generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1559to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1560
1561This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1562argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1563output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1564
1565* Debugging across forks
1566
1567On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1568in the inferior.
1569
1570* TUI
1571
1572HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1573it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1574configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1575
1576* GDB remote protocol additions
1577
1578A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1579Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1580fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1581allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1582
1583For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1584full 64-bit address. The command
1585
1586 set remoteaddresssize 32
1587
1588can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1589the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1590will be discarded.
1591
1592In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1593command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1594
1595 maint packet heythere
1596
1597sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1598disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1599time.
1600
1601The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1602target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1603downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1604
1605* Tracing can collect general expressions
1606
1607You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1608further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1609doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1610
1611* mask-address variable for Mips
1612
1613For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1614a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1615of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1616
1617* Higher serial baud rates
1618
1619GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1620230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1621to achieve all of these rates.)
1622
1623* i960 simulator
1624
1625The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1626builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1627
1628
1629*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1630
1631* New native configurations
1632
1633Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1634Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1635Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1636PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1637PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1638Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1639Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1640
1641* New targets
1642
1643Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1644Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1645Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1646Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1647MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1648MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1649MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1650Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1651Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1652Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1653NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1654
1655* New debugging protocols
1656
1657ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1658M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1659DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1660PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1661PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1662Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1663
1664* DWARF 2
1665
1666All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1667format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1668information.
1669
1670* Java frontend
1671
1672GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1673only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1674
1675* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1676
1677For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1678loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1679locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1680
1681* Live range splitting
1682
1683GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1684range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1685more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1686
1687* Hurd support
1688
1689GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1690updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1691
1692* ARM Thumb support
1693
1694GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1695instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1696instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1697accordingly.
1698
1699* MIPS16 support
1700
1701GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1702instruction set.
1703
1704* Overlay support
1705
1706GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1707linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1708will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1709control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1710additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1711in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1712
1713* info symbol
1714
1715The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1716the symbol at the specified address.
1717
1718* Trace support
1719
1720The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1721asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1722extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1723includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1724file tracepoint.c for more details.
1725
1726* MIPS simulator
1727
1728Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1729by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1730of most MIPS variants.
1731
1732* Sparc simulator
1733
1734Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1735by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1736Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1737
1738* set architecture
1739
1740For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1741basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1742architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1743the possible architectures.
1744
1745*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1746
1747* New native configurations
1748
1749Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1750M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1751PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1752PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1753PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1754RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1755
1756* New targets
1757
1758ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1759I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1760MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1761MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1762PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1763Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1764Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1765
1766* PowerPC simulator
1767
1768The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1769contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1770PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1771basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1772performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1773
1774* Solaris 2.5
1775
1776GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1777
1778* Windows 95/NT native
1779
1780GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1781To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1782which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1783Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1784ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1785
1786* dont-repeat command
1787
1788If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1789command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1790useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1791extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1792
1793* Send break instead of ^C
1794
1795The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1796rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1797GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1798
1799* Remote protocol timeout
1800
1801The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1802that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1803to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1804
1805* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1806
1807By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1808loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1809stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1810when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1811in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1812
1813Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1814/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1815automatically on hpux10.
1816
1817* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1818
1819Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1820
1821* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1822
1823When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1824may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1825the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1826every character. The default value is 1050.
1827
1828* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1829
1830If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1831a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1832replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1833details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1834remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1835to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1836
1837* Speedups for remote debugging
1838
1839GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1840the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1841and more efficient S-record downloading.
1842
1843* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1844
1845GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1846Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1847
1848*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1849
1850* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1851
1852The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1853can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1854
1855* Remote targets use caching
1856
1857Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1858remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1859it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1860debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1861off' turns the the data cache off.
1862
1863* Remote targets may have threads
1864
1865The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1866in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1867gdb/remote.c for details.
1868
1869* NetROM support
1870
1871If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1872support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1873acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1874write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1875support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1876another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1877sequence is something like
1878
1879 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1880 load <prog>
1881 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1882
1883* Macintosh host
1884
1885GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1886may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1887it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1888available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1889device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1890directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1891scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1892mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1893
1894* Autoconf
1895
1896GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1897but does simplify configuration and building.
1898
1899* hpux10
1900
1901GDB now supports hpux10.
1902
1903*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1904
1905* New native configurations
1906
1907x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1908x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1909NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1910Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1911
1912* New targets
1913
1914A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1915HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1916CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1917PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1918WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1919
1920* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1921
1922GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1923possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1924filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1925the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1926if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1927
1928* Arguments to user-defined commands
1929
1930User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1931Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1932trivial example:
1933define adder
1934 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1935
1936To execute the command use:
1937adder 1 2 3
1938
1939Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1940Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1941use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1942
1943* New `if' and `while' commands
1944
1945This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1946commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1947expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1948execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1949terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1950`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1951if the expression is zero.
1952
1953* Fortran source language mode
1954
1955GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1956Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1957variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1958with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1959Fortran compilers.
1960
1961* Better HPUX support
1962
1963Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1964running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1965processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1966for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1967that behavior do the following before running the program:
1968
1969 adb -w a.out
1970 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1971 control-d
1972
1973This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1974To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1975
1976 adb -w a.out
1977 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1978 control-d
1979
1980You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1981the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1982external linkage.
1983
1984GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1985HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1986
1987* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1988
1989You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1990commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1991current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1992"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1993associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1994configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1995
1996* New DOS host serial code
1997
1998This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1999no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2000a PC's serial port.
2001
2002*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2003
2004* New "complete" command
2005
2006This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2007were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2008
2009* Trailing space optional in prompt
2010
2011"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2012allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2013
2014* Breakpoint hit counts
2015
2016"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2017has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2018can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2019to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2020less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2021that breakpoint.
2022
2023* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2024
2025"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2026an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2027arrays actually contain only short strings.
2028
2029* Shared library breakpoints
2030
2031In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2032breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2033
2034* Hardware watchpoints
2035
2036There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2037targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2038
55241689 2039Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2040
2041* Annotations
2042
2043Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2044and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2045
2046* Improved Irix 5 support
2047
2048GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2049
2050* Improved HPPA support
2051
2052GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2053
2054* New native configurations
2055
2056Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2057HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2058Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2059RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2060
2061* New targets
2062
2063OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2064MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2065Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2066
2067* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2068
2069There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2070This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2071
2072* Fixes
2073
2074As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2075and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2076
2077*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2078
2079* Irix 5 is now supported
2080
2081* HPPA support
2082
2083GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2084to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2085GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2086of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2087can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2088
2089
2090*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2091
2092* User visible changes:
2093
2094* Remote Debugging
2095
2096The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2097target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2098debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2099integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2100debugging info for the mips target).
2101
2102* DEC Alpha native support
2103
2104GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2105debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2106work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2107Alpha-specific notes.
2108
2109* Preliminary thread implementation
2110
2111GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2112
2113* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2114
2115This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2116to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2117for details).
2118
2119* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2120
2121This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2122mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2123call methods, ...etc.
2124
2125*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2126
2127 * User visible changes:
2128
2129Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2130supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2131other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2132somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2133
2134Filename completion now works.
2135
2136When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2137arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2138addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2139
2140All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2141vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2142should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2143your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2144to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2145
2146 * DEC alpha support
2147
2148This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2149cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2150
2151
2152*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2153
2154 * Testsuite
2155
2156This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2157The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2158via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2159
2160 * C++ demangling
2161
2162'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2163emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2164Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2165disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2166use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2167
2168 * Simulators
2169
2170GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2171So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2172Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2173
2174 * New targets supported
2175
2176H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2177H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2178SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2179Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2180IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2181
2182Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2183version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2184GO32 memory extender.
2185
2186 * New remote protocols
2187
2188MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2189
2190 * New source languages supported
2191
2192This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2193used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2194into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2195
2196
2197*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2198
2199 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2200
2201GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2202version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2203University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2204compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2205format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2206(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2207
2208Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2209
2210 * Faster and better demangling
2211
2212We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2213demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2214character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2215only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2216This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2217increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2218symbol lookups.
2219
2220`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2221from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2222compiler does not actually implement.
2223
2224 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2225
2226In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2227inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2228recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2229very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2230The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2231circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2232fix.
2233
2234The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2235release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2236
2237 * Improved configure script
2238
2239The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2240you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2241host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2242done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2243
2244We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2245version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2246`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2247The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2248only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2249We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2250
2251 * Documentation improvements
2252
2253There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2254produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2255before submitting changes.
2256
2257The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2258M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2259`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2260you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2261a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2262
2263*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2264We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2265been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2266or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2267`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2268around this problem.
2269
2270 * New features
2271
2272GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2273the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2274`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2275the target program.
2276
2277The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2278how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2279
2280 * New native hosts supported
2281
2282HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2283386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2284
2285 * New targets supported
2286
2287AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2288
2289 * New file formats supported
2290
2291BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2292HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2293
2294 * Major bug fixes
2295
2296Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2297
2298We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2299printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2300
2301We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2302for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2303release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2304
2305You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2306will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2307
2308We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2309for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2310especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2311libraries.
2312
2313The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2314information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2315command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2316any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2317when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2318
2319 * Internal improvements
2320
2321GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2322debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2323
2324GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2325Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2326symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2327contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2328shared code that handles any of them.
2329
2330 * New command line options
2331
2332We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2333
2334 * Mmalloc licensing
2335
2336The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2337General Public License.
2338
2339*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2340
2341 * Host/native/target split
2342
2343GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2344hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2345target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2346local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2347ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2348
2349The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2350GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2351is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2352code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2353any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2354built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2355handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2356
2357GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2358It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2359plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2360
2361 * New hosts supported
2362
2363HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2364386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2365386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2366
2367 * New targets supported
2368
2369Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
237068030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2371
2372 * New native hosts supported
2373
2374386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2375 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2376386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2377
2378 * New file formats supported
2379
2380BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2381supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2382format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2383
2384 * New commands
2385
2386`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2387`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2388These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2389
2390`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2391
2392You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2393scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2394prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2395executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2396
2397 * C++ improvements
2398
2399We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2400info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2401symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2402
2403Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2404
2405 * Major bug fixes
2406
2407The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2408fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2409by the compiler.
2410
2411We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2412support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2413
2414John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2415slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2416that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2417purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2418the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2419mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2420
2421Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2422about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2423completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2424we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2425
2426 * AMD 29k support
2427
2428A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2429specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2430calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2431usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2432in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2433
2434We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2435Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2436of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2437resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2438
2439 * Remote interfaces
2440
2441We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2442with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2443message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2444This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2445needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2446breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2447each instruction being stepped through.
2448
2449The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2450registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2451
2452There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2453find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2454Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2455processor with a serial port.
2456
2457 * Configuration
2458
2459Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2460`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2461supported, and what files each one uses.
2462
2463 * Library changes
2464
2465There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2466disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2467Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2468disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2469
2470The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2471Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2472can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2473grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2474
2475 * Documentation
2476
2477The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2478reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2479as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2480encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2481system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2482bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2483
2484And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2485
2486
2487*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2488
2489 * Better support for C++ function names
2490
2491GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2492names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2493(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2494single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2495Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2496
2497GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2498the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2499You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2500lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2501for the list of formats.
2502
2503 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2504
2505Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2506C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2507directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2508can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2509usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2510about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2511this problem.)
2512
2513 * New 'maintenance' command
2514
2515All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2516the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2517can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2518
2519 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2520 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2521 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2522 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2523 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2524 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2525
2526The following commands are new:
2527
2528 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2529 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2530 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2531
2532 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2533
2534We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2535(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2536be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2537read after argv processing.
2538
2539 * New hosts supported
2540
2541Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2542
55241689 2543GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2544
2545We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2546is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2547for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2548masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2549fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2550It costs extra.
2551
2552 * New targets supported
2553
2554Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2555
2556 * More smarts about finding #include files
2557
2558GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2559all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2560greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2561especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2562the one that contains your sources.
2563
2564We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2565breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2566try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2567
2568 * Interesting infernals change
2569
2570GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2571section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2572target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2573stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2574
2575 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2576
2577There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2578 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2579 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2580
2581See the ChangeLog for details.
2582
2583*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2584
2585 * New machines supported (host and target)
2586
2587IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2588
2589SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2590
2591 * New malloc package
2592
2593GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2594Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2595capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2596This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2597pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2598more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2599
2600 * info proc
2601
2602The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2603'help info proc' for details.
2604
2605 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2606
2607The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2608Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2609possible.
2610
2611 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2612
2613Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2614support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2615conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2616environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2617that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2618in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2619
2620 * Cross byte order fixes
2621
2622Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2623targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2624
2625 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2626
2627If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2628system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2629`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2630program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2631called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2632Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2633and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2634the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2635option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2636starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2637
2638You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2639the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2640information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2641slower, but makes future operations faster.
2642
2643The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2644build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2645A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2646use is:
2647
2648 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2649
2650The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2651It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2652shared across multiple host platforms.
2653
2654 * longjmp() handling
2655
2656GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2657siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2658all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2659platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2660
2661 * Solaris 2.0
2662
2663Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2664this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2665reading symbols.
2666
2667 * Bug fixes
2668
2669As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2670People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2671crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2672
2673*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2674
2675 * New machines supported (host and target)
2676
2677SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2678 (except core files)
2679BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2680Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2681
2682 * New machines supported (target)
2683
2684AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2685
2686 * C++ support
2687
2688GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2689The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2690per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2691
2692GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2693`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2694extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2695good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2696will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2697released.
2698
2699 * New features for SVR4
2700
2701GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2702shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2703only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2704
2705The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2706on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2707it prints the address mappings of the process.
2708
2709If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2710bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2711
2712 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2713
2714Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2715now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2716skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2717make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2718same code linked statically.
2719
2720 * New Getopt
2721
2722GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2723version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2724continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2725Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2726added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2727future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2728
2729 * Bugs fixed
2730
2731The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2732Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2733See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2734
2735
2736*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2737
2738 * New machines supported (host and target)
2739
2740Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2741NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2742Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2743
2744 * Almost SCO Unix support
2745
2746We had hoped to support:
2747SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2748(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2749that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2750about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2751
2752 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2753
2754GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2755debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2756is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2757send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2758reqired (if any).
2759
2760 * New Readline
2761
2762GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2763is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2764required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2765
2766 * Bugs fixed
2767
2768The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2769Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2770See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2771
2772 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2773
2774GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2775supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2776symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2777
2778Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2779mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2780debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2781mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2782version 2.
2783
2784Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2785really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2786line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2787variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2788situation somewhat.
2789
2790When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2791However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2792methods.
2793
2794We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2795DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2796encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2797
2798
2799*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2800
2801 * Improved configuration
2802
2803Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2804Porting BFD is simpler.
2805
2806 * Stepping improved
2807
2808The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2809of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2810in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2811function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2812
2813 * Bug fixing
2814
2815Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2816
2817 * New host supported (not target)
2818
2819Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2820
2821
2822*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2823
2824 * Multiple source language support
2825
2826GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2827It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2828and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2829language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2830You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2831`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2832
2833 * GDB and Modula-2
2834
2835GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2836currently under development at the State University of New York at
2837Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2838continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2839
2840Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2841debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2842symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2843
2844There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2845in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2846
2847 * set write on/off
2848
2849GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2850a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2851the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2852by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2853effect immediately.
2854
2855 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2856
2857When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2858shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2859The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2860examining core files.
2861
2862 * set listsize
2863
2864You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2865The default is 10.
2866
2867 * New machines supported (host and target)
2868
2869SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2870Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2871Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2872
2873 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2874
2875IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2876
2877 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2878
2879AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2880AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2881Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2882
2883 * New remote interfaces
2884
2885AMD 29000 Adapt
2886AMD 29000 Minimon
2887
2888
2889*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2890
2891 * New Facilities
2892
2893Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2894
2895Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2896target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2897is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2898remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2899remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2900also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2901using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2902stub on the target system.
2903
2904New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2905
2906GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2907library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2908object file types such as a.out and coff.
2909
2910There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2911refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2912
2913
2914 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2915
2916All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2917by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2918
2919For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2920``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2921Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2922
2923What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2924print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2925will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2926all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2927
2928confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2929 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2930 it is already running. Default is ON.
2931
2932editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2933 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2934 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2935 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2936 Default is ON.
2937
2938history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2939 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2940 or the value of the environment variable
2941 GDBHISTFILE.
2942
2943history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2944 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2945 HISTSIZE.
2946
2947history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2948 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2949 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2950
2951history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2952 history expansion will be performed on
2953 command line input. The default is OFF.
2954
2955radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2956 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2957 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2958
2959height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2960 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2961 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2962 variable TERM.
2963
2964width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2965 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2966 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2967 variable TERM.
2968
2969Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2970``set width'' instead.
2971
2972print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2973 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2974 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2975 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2976
2977print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2978 is OFF.
2979
2980print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2981 "raw" form if off.
2982
2983print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2984 like instructions.
2985
2986print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2987
2988
2989 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2990
2991The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2992new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2993are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2994window.
2995
2996
2997 * Support for Shared Libraries
2998
2999GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3000Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3001before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3002happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3003At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3004from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3005shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3006It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3007
3008sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3009 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3010 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3011
3012info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3013
3014
3015 * Watchpoints
3016
3017A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3018expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3019tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3020quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3021problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3022more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3023
3024watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3025
3026info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3027
3028delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3029disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3030enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3031
3032
3033 * C++ multiple inheritance
3034
3035When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3036for C++ programs.
3037
3038 * C++ exception handling
3039
3040Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3041ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3042the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3043handler's context).
3044
3045catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3046 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3047 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3048
3049info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3050 current stack frame.
3051
3052
3053 * Minor command changes
3054
3055The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3056command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3057is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3058
3059The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3060at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3061frames without printing.
3062
3063 * New directory command
3064
3065'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3066The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3067about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3068with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3069find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3070
3071 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3072
3073For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3074for more details.
3075
3076GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3077two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3078Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3079where the program that you are debugging will run.
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