D language support.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.1
5
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6* Windows Thread Information Block access.
7
8 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
9 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
10 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
11 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
12 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
13 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
14
15* New remote packets
16
17qGetTIBAddr
18
19 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
20
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21* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
22 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
23 a directory.
24
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25* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
26
27 - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
28 supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
29
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30* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
31 it understands register description.
32
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33* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
34
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35* X86 general purpose registers
36
37 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
38 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
39 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
40 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
41 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
42
95a42b64 43* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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44 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
45 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
46 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
47 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
48 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 49
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50* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
51 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
52 in the specified file.
53
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54* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
55 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
56 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
57 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
58 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
59 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
60 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
61 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
62 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
63 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
64
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65* New commands
66
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67set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
68show target-file-system-kind
69 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
70 names.
71
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72save breakpoints <filename>
73 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
74 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
75 definitions, use the `source' command.
76
77`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
78is now deprecated.
79
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80* Python scripting
81
adc36818 82** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
fa33c3cd 83 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks.
f870a310 84
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85** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
86 gdb.progspaces, and gdb.current_progspace.
87
88** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 89
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90** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
91 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
92 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
93
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94* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
95there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
96tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
97regular breakpoints.
98
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99* New targets
100
101ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
102
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103* D language support.
104 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
105 language.
106
bfbf3774 107*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 108
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109* C++ Improvements
110
111 ** Namespace Support
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112
113 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
114 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
115 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
116 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
117 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
118
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119 ** Bug Fixes
120
121 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
122 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
123 qualified name.
124
125 ** Cast Operators
126
127 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
128 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
129
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130* New targets
131
132Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 133Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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134
135* New Simulators
136
137Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 138Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 139
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140* Multi-program debugging.
141
142 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
143 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
144 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
145 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
146 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
147 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
148 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
149 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
150
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151* New tracing features
152
153 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
154
155 ** Trace state variables
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156
157 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
158 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
159 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
160 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
161 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
162 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
163 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
164 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
165 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
166 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 167
d5551862 168 ** Fast tracepoints
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169
170 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
171 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
172 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
173 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
174 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
175 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
176 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
177 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
178 the regular trace command.
179
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180 ** Disconnected tracing
181
182 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
183 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
184 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
185 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
186 connection is lost unexpectedly.
187
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188 ** Trace files
189
190 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
191 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
192 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
193 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
194 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
195 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
196 <name>".
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197
198 ** Circular trace buffer
199
200 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
201 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
202 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
203 not be available for all target agents.
204
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205* Changed commands
206
207disassemble
208 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
209 the arguments to be comma-separated.
210
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211info variables
212 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
213 which only declare a variable are not shown.
214
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215source
216 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
217 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
218 support.
219
220 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
221 "set script-extension" (see below).
222
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223* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
224
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225record save [<FILENAME>]
226 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
227 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
228
229record restore <FILENAME>
230 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
231 earlier time, for replay debugging.
232
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233add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
234 Add a new inferior.
235
236clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
237 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
238 inferior has loaded.
239
240remove-inferior ID
241 Remove an inferior.
242
243maint info program-spaces
244 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
245
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246set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
247show remote interrupt-sequence
248 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
249 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
250 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
251 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
252 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
253
254set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
255show remote interrupt-on-connect
256 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
257 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
258 Linux kernel.
259
260set remotebreak [on | off]
261show remotebreak
262Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
263
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264tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
265 Create or modify a trace state variable.
266
267info tvariables
268 List trace state variables and their values.
269
270delete tvariable $NAME ...
271 Delete one or more trace state variables.
272
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273teval EXPR, ...
274 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
275 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
276
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277ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
278 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
279
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280* New expression syntax
281
282 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
283 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
284
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285* New options
286
287set follow-exec-mode new|same
288show follow-exec-mode
289 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
290 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
291 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
292
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293set default-collect EXPR, ...
294show default-collect
295 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
296 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
297 such as registers or a critical global variable.
298
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299set disconnected-tracing
300show disconnected-tracing
301 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
302 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
303 upon disconnection.
304
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305set circular-trace-buffer
306show circular-trace-buffer
307 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
308 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
309 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
310 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
311
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312set script-extension off|soft|strict
313show script-extension
314 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
315 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
316 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
317 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
318 evaluation failed.
319 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
320
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321set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
322show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
323 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
324 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
325 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
326 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
327 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
328 is on.
329
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330* Python API Improvements
331
332 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
333 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
334 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
335
336 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
337 `is_base_class' attribute.
338
339 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
340
341 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
342 evaluate an expression.
343
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344* New remote packets
345
346QTDV
347 Define a trace state variable.
348
349qTV
350 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
351
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352QTDisconnected
353 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
354
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355QTBuffer:circular
356 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
357
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358qTfP, qTsP
359 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
360
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361* Bug fixes
362
363Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
364
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365Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
366much more reliable. In particular:
367 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
368 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
369 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
370 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
371 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
372 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
373 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
374 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
375 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
376 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
377 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
378 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
379 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
380 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
381 non-threaded programs.
382
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383PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
384This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
385libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
386executable program.
387
abc7453d 388*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 389
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390* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
391dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
392them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
393for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
394"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
395
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396* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
397breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
398or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
399the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
400for tracepoint actions.
401
e6158f16 402* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
7280022e 403in hex as well as in symbolic form.
e6158f16 404
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405* Process record and replay
406
407 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
408 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
409 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
410 execute commands.
411
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412* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
413step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
414set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
415reverse execution.
416
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417* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
418feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4192.6.28 or later.
420
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421* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
422target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
423char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
424literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
425U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
426`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
427system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
428the installation instructions for more information.
429
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430* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
431remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
432with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
433the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
434
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435* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
436and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
437
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438* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
439now complete on file names.
440
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441* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
442completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
443For instance, consider:
444
445 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
446 # struct example variable;
447 (gdb) p variable.
448
449If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
450completions will be "f1" and "f2".
451
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452* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
453the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
454
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455* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
456operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
457macros.
458
47a3467a 459* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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460the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
461implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
462
463* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
464registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
465can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
466and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 467
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468* New remote packets
469
470qSearch:memory:
471 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
472
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473QStartNoAckMode
474 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
475 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
476 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
477
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478vKill
479 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
480 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
481
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482qXfer:osdata:read
483 Obtains additional operating system information
484
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485qXfer:siginfo:read
486qXfer:siginfo:write
487 Read or write additional signal information.
488
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489* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
490
491 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
492 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
493 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
494
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495* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
496source+assembly.
497
c055b101 498* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 499DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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500
501* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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502and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
503`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 504
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505* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
506with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
507
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508* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
509
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510* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
511
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512* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
513which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
514
1fddbabb 515* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 516list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 517
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518* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
519conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
520have also been fixed.
521
bfb8797a 522* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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523From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
524are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 525
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526* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
527example, given:
528
529 template<typename T> class C { };
530 C<char const *> c;
531
532GDB will now correctly handle all of:
533
534 ptype C<char const *>
535 ptype C<char const*>
536 ptype C<const char *>
537 ptype C<const char*>
538
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539* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
540
541 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
542 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
543
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544 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
545 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
546 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
547
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548 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
549 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
550
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551 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
552 gdbserver.
553
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554 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
555 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
556
557 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
558 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
559 as appropriate.
560
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561* Python scripting
562
563 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
564 available is determined at configure time.
565
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566 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
567
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568* Ada tasking support
569
570 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
571 been introduced:
572
573 info tasks
574 Print the list of Ada tasks.
575 info task N
576 Print detailed information about task number N.
577 task
578 Print the task number of the current task.
579 task N
580 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
581
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582* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
583add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
584
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585* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
586
587 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
588 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
589 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
590 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
591 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
592 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
593 below.
594
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595* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
596"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
597information.
598
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599* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
600to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
601architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
602See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
603more information.
604
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605* Multi-architecture debugging.
606
607 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
608 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
609 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
610 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
611 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
612
613* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
614use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
615Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
616powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
617--enable-targets configure option.
618
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619* Non-stop mode debugging.
620
621 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
622 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
623 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
624 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
625 section in the user manual for more information.
626
627 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
628 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
629 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
630 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
631 extensions on linux targets.
632
d7713ae0 633* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 634
a96d9b2e
SDJ
635catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
636 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
637 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
638 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
639 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
640 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
641 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
642 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
643 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
644
08388c79
DE
645find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
646 val1 [, val2, ...]
647 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
648
d57a3c85
TJB
649maint set python print-stack
650maint show python print-stack
651 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
652
653python [CODE]
654 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
655
d7713ae0
EZ
656macro define
657macro list
658macro undef
659 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
660 interactively.
661
662info os processes
663 Show operating system information about processes.
664
2277426b
PA
665info inferiors
666 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
667
668inferior NUM
669 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
670
671detach inferior NUM
672 Detach from inferior number NUM.
673
674kill inferior NUM
675 Kill inferior number NUM.
676
d7713ae0
EZ
677* New options
678
3285f3fe
UW
679set spu stop-on-load
680show spu stop-on-load
681 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
682
ff1a52c6
UW
683set spu auto-flush-cache
684show spu auto-flush-cache
685 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
686 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
687
d7713ae0
EZ
688set sh calling-convention
689show sh calling-convention
690 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
691
e0a3ce09 692set debug timestamp
75feb17d 693show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
694 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
695
696set disassemble-next-line
697show disassemble-next-line
698 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
699 the debuggee stops.
700
701set remote noack-packet
702show remote noack-packet
703 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
704 under "New remote packets."
705
706set remote query-attached-packet
707show remote query-attached-packet
708 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
709
710set remote read-siginfo-object
711show remote read-siginfo-object
712 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
713 packet.
714
715set remote write-siginfo-object
716show remote write-siginfo-object
717 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
718 packet.
719
40ab02ce
MS
720set remote reverse-continue
721show remote reverse-continue
722 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
723
724set remote reverse-step
725show remote reverse-step
726 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
727
d7713ae0
EZ
728set displaced-stepping
729show displaced-stepping
730 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
731 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
732 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
733
734set debug displaced
735show debug displaced
736 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
737
738maint set internal-error
739maint show internal-error
740 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
741
742maint set internal-warning
743maint show internal-warning
744 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 745
ccd213ac
DJ
746set exec-wrapper
747show exec-wrapper
748unset exec-wrapper
749 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 750
aad4b048
JB
751set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
752show multiple-symbols
753 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
754 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
755 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
756
74960c60
VP
757set breakpoint always-inserted
758show breakpoint always-inserted
759 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
760 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
761 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
762
0428b8f5
DJ
763set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
764show arm fallback-mode
765set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
766show arm force-mode
767 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
768 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
769 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
770 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
771
10568435
JK
772set disable-randomization
773show disable-randomization
774 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
775 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
776 multiple debugging sessions.
777
d7713ae0
EZ
778set non-stop
779show non-stop
780 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
781 a breakpoint.
782
b3eb342c 783set target-async
d7713ae0 784show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
785 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
786 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
787 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
788 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
789
6c7a06a3
TT
790set target-wide-charset
791show target-wide-charset
792 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
793 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
794
84603566
SL
795set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
796show tcp auto-retry
797set tcp connect-timeout
798show tcp connect-timeout
799 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
800 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
801 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
802
17a37d48
PP
803set libthread-db-search-path
804show libthread-db-search-path
805 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
806 libthread_db.
807
d4db2f36
PA
808set schedule-multiple (on|off)
809show schedule-multiple
810 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
811 the current process.
812
4e5d721f
DE
813set stack-cache
814show stack-cache
815 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
816 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
817 affecting correctness.
818
910c5da8
JB
819set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
820show interactive-mode
821 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
822 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
823 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
824 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
825 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
826
2277426b
PA
827* Removed commands
828
829info forks
830 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
831 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
832 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
833 command.
834
835fork NUM
836 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
837 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
838 alias for the `fork' command.
839
840process PID
841 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
842 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
843 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
844
845delete fork NUM
846 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
847 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
848 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
849 fork' command.
850
851detach fork NUM
852 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
853 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
854 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
855 fork' command.
856
a80b95ba
TG
857* New native configurations
858
859x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
860
b8bfd3ed
JB
861x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
862
75a2d5e7
TT
863* New targets
864
c28c63d8 865Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 866x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 867x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 868S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 869
6de3146c
PA
870* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
871 (mingw32ce) debugging.
872
d5cbbe6e
JB
873* Removed commands
874
875catch load
876catch unload
877 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
878
75feb17d 879*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 880
af5ca30d
NH
881* New native configurations
882
883NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 884Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
885
886* New targets
887
888NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 889Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 890
7a404eba
PA
891* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
892
893 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
894 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
895 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
896 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
897
430ebac9
PA
898* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
899(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
900
fe6fbf8b 901* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 902is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
903
904* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
905including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
906and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 907
10665d76
JB
908* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
909accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
910more than one contiguous range of addresses.
911
7cc46491
DJ
912* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
913
d71340b8
DJ
914* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
915registers on PowerPC targets.
916
523c4513
DJ
917* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
918targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
919
a6b151f1
DJ
920* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
921commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
922
2d717e4f
DJ
923* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
924extended-remote mode.
925
24a836bd 926* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
927The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
928error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
929The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 930
d0c678e6
UW
931* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
932building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
933target architectures.
934
d64a946d
TJB
935* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
936Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
937now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
938stored in two consecutive float registers.
939
ee163bf5
VP
940* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
941breakpoints now.
942
b93b6ca7 943* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
944Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
945include:
b93b6ca7
JB
946 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
947 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
948 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
949 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
950 of an assignment
951 - Improved command completion in Ada
952 - Several bug fixes
953
d001be7a
DJ
954* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
955process.
956
a6b151f1
DJ
957* New commands
958
6d53d0af
JB
959set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
960show print frame-arguments
961 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
962 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
963
a6b151f1
DJ
964remote put
965remote get
966remote delete
967 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
968
969* New MI commands
970
971-target-file-put
972-target-file-get
973-target-file-delete
974 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
975
976* New remote packets
977
978vFile:open:
979vFile:close:
980vFile:pread:
981vFile:pwrite:
982vFile:unlink:
983 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 984
2d717e4f
DJ
985vAttach
986 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
987 mode.
988
989vRun
990 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
991
8d5f9c6f 992*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 993
19d378fc
MS
994* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
995bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
996Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
997
3a40aaa0
UW
998* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
999symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1000-Bsymbolic linker option.
1001
a6ec25f2
BW
1002* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1003recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1004is not supported.
1005
6dd09645
JB
1006* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1007frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1008
c9bb8148
DJ
1009* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
101032-bit or 64-bit register values.
1011
0d5de010
DJ
1012* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1013
23181151
DJ
1014* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1015target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1016a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1017
ea37ba09
DJ
1018* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1019automatically displayed as character or string data.
1020
1021* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1022arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1023as strings.
e1f48ead 1024
123dc839
DJ
1025* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1026for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1027only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1028
05a4558a
DJ
1029* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1030iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1031
7c963485
PA
1032* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1033ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1034has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1035
b18be20d
DJ
1036* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1037
0ca420ce
UW
1038* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1039
31d99776
DJ
1040* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1041layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1042segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1043
a4642986
MR
1044* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1045immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1046
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1047* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1048"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1049packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1050where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1051Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1052
1053* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1054(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1055
1056* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1057according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1058
c9bb8148
DJ
1059* New commands
1060
23776285
MR
1061set remoteflow
1062show remoteflow
1063 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1064 when debugging using remote targets.
1065
c9bb8148
DJ
1066set mem inaccessible-by-default
1067show mem inaccessible-by-default
1068 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1069 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1070 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1071 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1072 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1073
1074set breakpoint auto-hw
1075show breakpoint auto-hw
1076 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1077 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1078 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1079 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1080 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1081 including "next" and "finish".
1082
0e420bd8
JB
1083catch exception
1084catch exception unhandled
1085 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1086
1087catch assert
1088 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1089
f822c95b
DJ
1090set sysroot
1091show sysroot
1092 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1093 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1094 an alias to "set sysroot".
1095
83cc5c53
UW
1096info spu
1097 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1098 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1099 architecture.
1100
bd372731
MK
1101* New native configurations
1102
1103OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1104
23181151
DJ
1105set tdesc filename
1106unset tdesc filename
1107show tdesc filename
1108 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1109 not query the target for its built-in description.
1110
c9bb8148
DJ
1111* New targets
1112
54fe9172 1113OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1114MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1115Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1116
6dd09645
JB
1117* New remote packets
1118
1119QPassSignals:
1120 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1121 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1122
23181151
DJ
1123qXfer:features:read:
1124 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1125 features.
6dd09645 1126
83cc5c53
UW
1127qXfer:spu:read:
1128qXfer:spu:write:
1129 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1130 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1131
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1132qXfer:libraries:read:
1133 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1134 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1135 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1136 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1137
483367ee
DJ
1138* Removed targets
1139
1140Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1141
d08950c4
UW
1142alpha*-*-osf1*
1143alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1144d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1145hppa*-*-hiux*
1146i[34567]86-ncr-*
1147i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1148i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1149i[34567]86-*-netware*
1150i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1151i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1152i[34567]86-*-sco*
1153i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1154i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1155i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1156i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1157i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1158i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1159i[34567]86-*-isc*
1160m68*-cisco*-*
1161m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1162mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1163rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1164sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1165
7ce59000
DJ
1166* Other removed features
1167
1168target abug
1169target cpu32bug
1170target est
1171target rom68k
1172
1173 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1174
ea35711c
DJ
1175target hms
1176target e7000
1177target sh3
1178target sh3e
1179
1180 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1181 H8/300.
1182
1183target ocd
1184
1185 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1186 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1187 interfaces.
1188
7ce59000
DJ
1189DWARF 1 support
1190
1191 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1192 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1193
54d61198
DJ
1194Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1195
1196 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1197 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1198 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1199 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1200
ea35711c
DJ
1201MIPS ".pdr" sections
1202
1203 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1204 in debugging information.
1205
1206Scheme support
1207
1208 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1209 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1210
1a69e1e4
DJ
1211set mips stack-arg-size
1212set mips saved-gpreg-size
1213
1214 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1215
6dd09645 1216*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1217
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1218* New targets
1219
1220Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1221Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1222
6aec2e11
DJ
1223* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1224(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1225running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1226
1227* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1228Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1229supported.
1230
17218d91
DJ
1231* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1232broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1233
9ebce043
DJ
1234* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1235stub provides the required support.
1236
7d3d3ece
DJ
1237* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1238longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1239
4f8253f3
JB
1240* New commands
1241
1242set substitute-path
1243unset substitute-path
1244show substitute-path
1245 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1246 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1247 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1248 between compilation and debugging.
1249
9fa66fd7
AS
1250set trace-commands
1251show trace-commands
1252 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1253 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1254 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1255
1f5befc1
DJ
1256* REMOVED features
1257
1258The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1259
2ec3381a
DJ
1260Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1261an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1262
3d00d119
DJ
1263The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1264
be2a5f71
DJ
1265* New remote packets
1266
1267qSupported:
1268 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1269 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1270 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1271 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1272 target.
1273
0876f84a
DJ
1274qXfer:auxv:read:
1275 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1276 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1277
9ebce043
DJ
1278qXfer:memory-map:read:
1279 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1280 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1281
1282vFlashErase:
1283vFlashWrite:
1284vFlashDone:
1285 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1286
0876f84a
DJ
1287* Removed remote packets
1288
1289qPart:auxv:read:
1290 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1291 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1292
e374b601 1293*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1294
96309189
MS
1295* New targets
1296
1297Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1298
1299Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1300
53e5f3cf
AS
1301* New commands
1302
1303init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1304 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1305
ac264b3b
MS
1306The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1307
1308checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1309
1310restart <n> Return the program state to a
1311 previously saved state.
1312
1313info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1314
1315delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1316
1317set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1318 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1319
1320info forks List forks of the user program that
1321 are available to be debugged.
1322
1323fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1324 forks of the user program that are
1325 available to be debugged.
1326
1327delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1328 that are available to be debugged (and
1329 kill the forked process).
1330
1331detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1332 that are available to be debugged (and
1333 allow the process to continue).
1334
3950dc3f
NS
1335* New architecture
1336
1337Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1338
0ea3f30e
DJ
1339* Improved Windows host support
1340
1341GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1342native console support, and remote communications using either
1343network sockets or serial ports.
1344
f79daebb
GM
1345* Improved Modula-2 language support
1346
1347GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1348basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1349pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1350printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1351written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1352GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1353
acab6ab2
MM
1354* REMOVED features
1355
1356The ARM rdi-share module.
1357
f4267320
DJ
1358The Netware NLM debug server.
1359
53e5f3cf 1360*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1361
e0ecbda1
MK
1362* New native configurations
1363
02a677ac 1364OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1365OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1366
d64a6579
KB
1367* New targets
1368
1369Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1370
b33a6190
AS
1371* New command line options
1372
1373--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1374--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1375 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1376--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1377 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1378 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1379 with the --command (-x) option.
1380
11dced61
AC
1381* Deprecated commands removed
1382
1383The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1384removed:
1385
1386 Command Replacement
1387 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1388 othernames set arm disassembler
1389 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1390 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1391 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1392 regs info registers
1393
6fe85783
MK
1394* New BSD user-level threads support
1395
1396It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1397library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1398configurations are:
1399
1400FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1401FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1402OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1403
1404Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1405are not yet supported.
1406
5260ca71
MS
1407* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1408(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1409
e84ecc99
AC
1410* REMOVED configurations and files
1411
1412VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1413Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1414National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1415
31e35378
JB
1416* New "set print array-indexes" command
1417
1418After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1419when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1420behavior.
1421
e85e5c83
MK
1422* VAX floating point support
1423
1424GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1425
d91e9901
AS
1426* User-defined command support
1427
1428In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1429to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1430section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1431
f2cb65ca
MC
1432*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1433
f47b1503
AS
1434* New command line option
1435
1436GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1437debugging.
1438
f2cb65ca
MC
1439* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1440
1441GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1442information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1443by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1444proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1445to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1446
d08c0230
AC
1447* Internationalization
1448
1449When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1450internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1451continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1452
117ea3cf
PH
1453* Ada
1454
1455Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1456implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1457into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1458
d08c0230
AC
1459* New native configurations
1460
1461GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1462
1463* Remote 'p' packet
1464
1465GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1466packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1467
1468* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1469
1470GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1471The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1472features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1473i386 application).
1474
1475GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1476compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1477continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1478configurations:
1479
1480hppa-*-hpux
1481ia64-*-aix
1482mips-*-irix*
1483*-*-lynx
1484mips-*-linux-gnu
1485sds protocol
1486xdr protocol
1487powerpc bdm protocol
1488
1489Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1490made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1491
1492* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1493
1494Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1495been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1496configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1497permanently REMOVED.
1498
1499h8300-*-*
1500mcore-*-*
1501mn10300-*-*
1502ns32k-*-*
1503sh64-*-*
1504v850-*-*
1505
ebb7c577
AC
1506*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1507
1508* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1509
1510When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1511heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1512been fixed.
1513
1514* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1515
1516When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1517fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1518IRIX long double values).
1519
1520* VAX and "next"
1521
1522A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1523command. This problem has been fixed.
1524
860660cb 1525*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1526
0dea2468
AC
1527* Fix for ``many threads''
1528
1529On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1530rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1531error message:
1532
1533 ptrace: No such process.
1534 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1535
1536This problem has been fixed.
1537
2c07db7a
AC
1538* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1539
1540Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1541GDB to dump core).
1542
c23968a2
JB
1543* New ``start'' command.
1544
1545This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1546
71009278
MK
1547* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1548
1549Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1550live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1551platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1552
1553FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1554FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1555NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1556NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1557NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1558OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1559OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1560OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1561OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1562
3c0b7db2
AC
1563* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1564
1565Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1566These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1567of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1568call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1569signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1570
73cc75f3
AC
1571Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1572features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1573include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1574
7243600a
BF
1575* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1576
6f606e1c
MK
1577* New native configurations
1578
97dc871c 1579GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1580OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1581OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1582OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1583OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1584NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1585OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1586
a1b461bf
AC
1587* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1588
1589GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1590The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1591including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1592migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1593compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1594work, was also included.
1595
1596GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1597module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1598
1599h8300-*-*
1600mcore-*-*
1601mn10300-*-*
1602ns32k-*-*
1603sh64-*-*
1604v850-*-*
1605xstormy16-*-*
1606
1607Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1608made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1609
3c7012f5
AC
1610* REMOVED configurations and files
1611
1612Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1613Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1614Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1615Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1616Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1617AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1618Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1619decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1620riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1621sonymips mips-sony-*
1622sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1623
e5fe55f7
AC
1624*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1625
1626* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1627
1628The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1629GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1630command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1631program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1632with GDB".
1633
1634* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1635
1636Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1637libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1638cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1639GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1640shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1641the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1642are created.
1643
1644Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1645
1646* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1647
1648The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1649non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1650compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1651
1652* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1653
1654Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1655wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1656
1657* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1658
1659The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1660permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1661systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1662
1663* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1664
1665Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1666has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1667
1668* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1669
1670GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1671its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1672panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1673
1674* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1675
1676When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1677by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1678not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1679
faae5abe 1680*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1681
9175c9a3
MC
1682* Removed --with-mmalloc
1683
1684Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1685conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1686
3cc87ec0
MK
1687* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1688
1689The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1690the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1691and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1692you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1693
f0424ef6
MK
1694* Revised SPARC target
1695
1696The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1697FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1698support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1699from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1700(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1701
59659be2
ILT
1702* New C++ demangler
1703
1704GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1705names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1706with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1707programs.
1708
9e08b29b
DJ
1709* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1710
1711GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1712arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1713encountered these.
1714
8dfe8985
DC
1715* C++ nested types and namespaces
1716
1717GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1718improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1719is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1720Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1721namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1722"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1723frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1724if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1725GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1726
cced5e27
MK
1727* New native configurations
1728
1729NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1730OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1731OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1732OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1733OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1734
b4b4b794
KI
1735* New debugging protocols
1736
1737M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1738
7989c619
AC
1739* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1740
1741The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1742and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1743tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1744
5994185b
AC
1745* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1746
1747Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1748been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1749configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1750permanently REMOVED.
1751
1752Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1753Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1754Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1755Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1756Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1757AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1758Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1759decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1760riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1761sonymips mips-sony-*
1762sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1763
0ddabb4c
AC
1764* REMOVED configurations and files
1765
1766SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1767SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1768Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1769Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1770H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1771HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1772HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1773HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1774PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1775386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1776Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1777 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1778 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1779SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1780SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1781Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1782Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1783
c7f1390e
DJ
1784*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1785
1fe43d45
AC
1786* Objective-C
1787
1788Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1789integrated into GDB.
1790
e6beb428
AC
1791* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1792
1793DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1794information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1795By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1796backtraces.
1797
1798The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1799have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1800DWARF 2 CFI support.
1801
1802* Hosted file I/O.
1803
1804GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1805file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1806remote protocol documentation for details.
1807
1808* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1809
1810All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1811architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1812to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1813ppc32 on ppc64).
1814
1815* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1816
1817GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1818per-thread variables.
1819
1820* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1821
1822GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1823GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1824
1825* Separate debug info.
1826
1827GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1828automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1829of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1830system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1831and optional debug files.
1832
1833* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1834
1835DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1836describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1837debugger.
1838
1839GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1840for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1841
1842* Java
1843
1844A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1845Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1846considered "useable".
1847
85f8f974
DJ
1848* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1849
1850The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1851commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1852kernel.
1853
0fac0b41
DJ
1854* GDB supports logging output to a file
1855
1856There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1857used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1858
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1859* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1860
1861The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1862disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1863command.
1864
e286caf2 1865* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1866
1867The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1868registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1869
d28f9cdf
DJ
1870* Profiling support
1871
1872A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1873be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1874session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1875"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1876data, for more informative profiling results.
1877
da0f9dcd
AC
1878* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1879
1880The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1881option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1882"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1883
1884Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1885removed.
1886
fb9b6b35
JJ
1887Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1888Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1889Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1890 in a subsequent -var-update.
1891
954a4db8
MK
1892* New native configurations.
1893
1894FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1895
6760f9e6
JB
1896* Multi-arched targets.
1897
b4263afa 1898HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1899Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1900
1b831c93
AC
1901* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1902
1903Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1904been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1905configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1906permanently REMOVED.
1907
8b0e5691 1908Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1909Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1910H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1911HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1912HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1913HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1914PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1915Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1916 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1917 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1918Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1919Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1920
5835abe7
NC
1921* REMOVED configurations and files
1922
1923V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1924Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1925IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1926i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1927i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1928i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1929HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1930 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1931 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1932Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1933Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1934Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1935OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1936I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1937
a094c6fb
AC
1938* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1939
1940The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1941the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1942context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1943address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1944The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1945
299ffc64 1946*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1947
46248966
AC
1948* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1949
1950When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1951`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1952in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1953library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1954shared libs like mad''.
1955
b9d14705 1956* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1957
b9d14705
DJ
1958Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1959the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1960arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1961powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1962
e0e9281e
JB
1963* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1964
1965GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1966and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1967they expand.
1968
dd73b9bb
AC
1969The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1970invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1971
1972The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1973macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1974
e0e9281e
JB
1975Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1976information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1977your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1978information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1979
2250ee0c
CV
1980* Multi-arched targets.
1981
6e3ba3b8
JT
1982DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1983DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1984NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1985National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1986Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1987Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1988
cd9bfe15 1989* New targets.
e33ce519 1990
456f8b9d
DB
1991Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1992
e33ce519 1993
da8ca43d
JT
1994* New native configurations
1995
1996Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1997SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1998MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1999UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2000
cd9bfe15
AC
2001* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2002
2003Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2004been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2005configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2006permanently REMOVED.
2007
92eb23c5 2008Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2009OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2010IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2011Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2012Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2013Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2014i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2015i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2016i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2017HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2018 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2019 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2020I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2021
db034ac5
AC
2022* OBSOLETE languages
2023
2024CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2025
cd9bfe15
AC
2026* REMOVED configurations and files
2027
2028AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2029A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2030AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2031AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2032AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2033
2034testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2035
20f01a46
DH
2036* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2037
2038This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2039commands. The default is 1024.
2040
a5941fbf
MK
2041* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2042
2043Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2044
89743e04
MS
2045* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2046
2047These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2048to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2049from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2050
9fb14e79
JB
2051* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2052
2053The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2054including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2055of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2056
2037aebb
AC
2057*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2058
2059* New targets.
2060
2061Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2062
2063* Bug fixes
2064
2065gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2066mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2067Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2068
2069gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2070dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2071Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2072
2073Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2074Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2075By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2076
2077i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2078avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2079By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2080
37057839 2081*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2082
1a703748
MS
2083* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2084
2085This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2086really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2087In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2088target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2089This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2090(notably embedded) targets.
2091
cefd4ef5
MS
2092* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2093
55241689
AC
2094This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2095process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2096GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2097hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2098
352ed7b4
MS
2099* New command line option
2100
2101GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2102
2103* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2104
2105There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2106command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2107a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2108be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2109open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2110issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2111a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2112it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2113GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2114is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2115
fe419ffc
RE
2116* Changes in ARM configurations.
2117
2118Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2119configuration is fully multi-arch.
2120
eb7cedd9
MK
2121* New native configurations
2122
fe419ffc 2123ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2124x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2125AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2126Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2127
c9f63e6b
CV
2128* New targets
2129
2130Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2131
9b4ff276
AC
2132* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2133
2134Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2135been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2136configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2137permanently REMOVED.
2138
2139AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2140A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2141AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2142AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2143AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2144
b4ceaee6 2145testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2146
e2caac18
AC
2147* REMOVED configurations and files
2148
2149TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2150WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2151PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2152PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2153PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2154Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2155Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2156 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2157SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2158Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2159Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2160ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2161Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2162
c2a727fa
TT
2163* Changes to command line processing
2164
2165The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2166for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2167
467d8519
TT
2168* Changes to key bindings
2169
2170There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2171
7072a954
AC
2172*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2173
2174Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2175
2176Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2177corrupted.
2178
2179Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2180
2181Numerous documentation fixes.
2182
2183Numerous testsuite fixes.
2184
34f47bc4 2185*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2186
2187* New native configurations
2188
2189Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2190x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2191MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2192MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2193ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2194s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2195
bf64bfd6
AC
2196* New targets
2197
def90278 2198Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2199CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2200UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2201
17e78a56 2202* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2203
2204x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2205Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2206Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2207 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2208TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2209WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2210Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2211PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2212PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2213PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2214SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2215Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2216ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2217Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2218
17e78a56
AC
2219stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2220kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2221
7fcca85b
AC
2222Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2223been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2224configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2225permanently REMOVED.
2226
a196c81c 2227* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2228
2229Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2230Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2231Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2232ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2233Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2234ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2235
6d6b80e5 2236* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2237
6d6b80e5 2238GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2239sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2240present.
2241
bf64bfd6
AC
2242* Other news:
2243
e23194cb
EZ
2244* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2245
2246* The MI enabled by default.
2247
2248The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2249revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2250engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2251using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2252which is now deprecated.
2253
2254* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2255
2256GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2257main features are supported:
2258
2259 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2260
2261 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2262 extension;
2263
2264 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2265
2266 - a Pascal expression parser.
2267
2268However, some important features are not yet supported.
2269
2270 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2271
2272 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2273
2274 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2275 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2276
2277 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2278
2279 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2280
2281* Changes in completion.
2282
2283Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2284to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2285users expect at the shell prompt.
2286
2287Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2288`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2289program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2290files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2291be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2292considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2293name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2294
2295`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2296
2297* New platform-independent commands:
2298
2299It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2300hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2301documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2302
2303* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2304
d7275149
MK
2305Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2306revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2307many threads as your system allows you to have.
2308
e23194cb
EZ
2309Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2310
d7275149
MK
2311Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2312multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2313
2314* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2315
2316Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2317
e23194cb
EZ
2318GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2319debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2320supported.)
2321
2322* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2323
2324Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2325breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2326implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2327put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2328and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2329registers.
2330
2331The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2332debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2333watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2334
2335* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2336
2337New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2338the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2339
2340New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2341display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2342IDT.
2343
2344New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2345from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2346New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2347a given linear address.
2348
2349GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2350program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2351which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2352
2353DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2354
6c56c069
EZ
2355It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2356
e23194cb
EZ
2357* Changes in documentation.
2358
2359All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2360Documentation License.
2361
2362Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2363manual.
2364
2365TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2366
2367Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2368manual.
2369
2370The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2371documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2372hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2373
5d6640b1
AC
2374* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2375
2376The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2377``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2378contents of this file.
2379
1a1d8446
AC
2380* gdba.el deleted
2381
2382GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2383
9debab2f 2384*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2385
c63ce875
EZ
2386* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2387
2388Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2389programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2390displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2391greater level of detail.
2392
2393* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2394
2395It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2396bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2397on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2398written.
2399
2400* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2401
2402The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2403necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2404machines ``out of the box''.
2405
2406The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2407possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2408signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2409would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2410interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2411
2412It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2413standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2414even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2415and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2416terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2417
2418The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2419enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2420also works.
2421
2422DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2423GDB.
2424
2425It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2426directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2427times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2428breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2429
ed9a39eb
JM
2430* New native configurations
2431
2432ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2433PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2434
7a292a7a
SS
2435* New targets
2436
96baa820 2437Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2438x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2439PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2440TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2441
085dd6e6
JM
2442* OBSOLETE configurations
2443
2444Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2445Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2446Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2447ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2448Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2449
9debab2f
AC
2450Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2451but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2452these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2453be permanently REMOVED.
2454
5330533d
SS
2455* Gould support removed
2456
2457Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2458
bc9e5bbf
AC
2459* New features for SVR4
2460
2461On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2462without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2463load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2464
2465* Many C++ enhancements
2466
2467C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2468in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2469
adf40b2e
JM
2470* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2471
2472A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2473sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2474with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2475``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2476
2477 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2478 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2479
43e526b9
JM
2480* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2481
2482A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2483expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2484instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2485
2486The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2487added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2488
96baa820
JM
2489* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2490
2491The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2492``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2493include ``set remote P-packet''.
2494
11cf8741
JM
2495* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2496
2497The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2498accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2499``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2500
7876dd43
DB
2501* ``apropos'' command added.
2502
2503The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2504documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2505try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2506
bc9e5bbf
AC
2507* New MI interface
2508
2509A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2510interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2511process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2512"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2513enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2514
2515 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2516
c906108c
SS
2517*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2518
2519* New native configurations
2520
2521HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2522HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2523M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2524
2525* New targets
2526
2527Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2528Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2529Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2530
2531* OBSOLETE configurations
2532
2533Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2534
2535Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2536but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2537these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2538be permanently REMOVED.
2539
2540* ANSI/ISO C
2541
2542As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2543buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2544containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2545use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2546available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2547configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2548information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2549already.
2550
2551* Readline 2.2
2552
2553GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2554
2555* set extension-language
2556
2557You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2558languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2559you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2560 set extension-language .c c++
2561The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2562and their associated languages.
2563
2564* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2565
2566When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2567you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2568PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2569
2570 set processor NAME
2571
2572sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2573following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2574
2575 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2576 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2577 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2578 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2579 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2580 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2581 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2582 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2583 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2584 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2585 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2586
2587At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2588special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2589registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2590only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2591
2592* HP-UX support
2593
2594Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2595more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2596library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2597support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2598for xdb and dbx commands.
2599
2600* Catchpoints
2601
2602HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2603generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2604to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2605
2606This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2607argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2608output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2609
2610* Debugging across forks
2611
2612On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2613in the inferior.
2614
2615* TUI
2616
2617HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2618it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2619configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2620
2621* GDB remote protocol additions
2622
2623A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2624Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2625fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2626allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2627
2628For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2629full 64-bit address. The command
2630
2631 set remoteaddresssize 32
2632
2633can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2634the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2635will be discarded.
2636
2637In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2638command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2639
2640 maint packet heythere
2641
2642sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2643disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2644time.
2645
2646The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2647target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2648downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2649
2650* Tracing can collect general expressions
2651
2652You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2653further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2654doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2655
2656* mask-address variable for Mips
2657
2658For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2659a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2660of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2661
2662* Higher serial baud rates
2663
2664GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2665230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2666to achieve all of these rates.)
2667
2668* i960 simulator
2669
2670The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2671builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2672
2673
2674*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2675
2676* New native configurations
2677
2678Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2679Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2680Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2681PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2682PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2683Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2684Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2685
2686* New targets
2687
2688Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2689Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2690Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2691Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2692MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2693MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2694MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2695Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2696Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2697Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2698NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2699
2700* New debugging protocols
2701
2702ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2703M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2704DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2705PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2706PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2707Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2708
2709* DWARF 2
2710
2711All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2712format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2713information.
2714
2715* Java frontend
2716
2717GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2718only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2719
2720* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2721
2722For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2723loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2724locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2725
2726* Live range splitting
2727
2728GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2729range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2730more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2731
2732* Hurd support
2733
2734GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2735updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2736
2737* ARM Thumb support
2738
2739GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2740instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2741instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2742accordingly.
2743
2744* MIPS16 support
2745
2746GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2747instruction set.
2748
2749* Overlay support
2750
2751GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2752linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2753will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2754control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2755additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2756in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2757
2758* info symbol
2759
2760The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2761the symbol at the specified address.
2762
2763* Trace support
2764
2765The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2766asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2767extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2768includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2769file tracepoint.c for more details.
2770
2771* MIPS simulator
2772
2773Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2774by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2775of most MIPS variants.
2776
2777* Sparc simulator
2778
2779Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2780by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2781Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2782
2783* set architecture
2784
2785For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2786basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2787architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2788the possible architectures.
2789
2790*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2791
2792* New native configurations
2793
2794Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2795M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2796PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2797PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2798PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2799RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2800
2801* New targets
2802
2803ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2804I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2805MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2806MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2807PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2808Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2809Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2810
2811* PowerPC simulator
2812
2813The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2814contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2815PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2816basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2817performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2818
2819* Solaris 2.5
2820
2821GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2822
2823* Windows 95/NT native
2824
2825GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2826To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2827which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2828Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2829ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2830
2831* dont-repeat command
2832
2833If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2834command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2835useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2836extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2837
2838* Send break instead of ^C
2839
2840The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2841rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2842GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2843
2844* Remote protocol timeout
2845
2846The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2847that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2848to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2849
2850* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2851
2852By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2853loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2854stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2855when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2856in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2857
2858Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2859/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2860automatically on hpux10.
2861
2862* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2863
2864Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2865
2866* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2867
2868When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2869may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2870the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2871every character. The default value is 1050.
2872
2873* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2874
2875If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2876a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2877replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2878details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2879remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2880to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2881
2882* Speedups for remote debugging
2883
2884GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2885the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2886and more efficient S-record downloading.
2887
2888* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2889
2890GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2891Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2892
2893*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2894
2895* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2896
2897The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2898can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2899
2900* Remote targets use caching
2901
2902Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2903remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2904it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2905debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2906off' turns the the data cache off.
2907
2908* Remote targets may have threads
2909
2910The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2911in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2912gdb/remote.c for details.
2913
2914* NetROM support
2915
2916If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2917support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2918acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2919write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2920support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2921another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2922sequence is something like
2923
2924 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2925 load <prog>
2926 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2927
2928* Macintosh host
2929
2930GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2931may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2932it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2933available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2934device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2935directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2936scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2937mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2938
2939* Autoconf
2940
2941GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2942but does simplify configuration and building.
2943
2944* hpux10
2945
2946GDB now supports hpux10.
2947
2948*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2949
2950* New native configurations
2951
2952x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2953x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2954NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2955Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2956
2957* New targets
2958
2959A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2960HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2961CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2962PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2963WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2964
2965* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2966
2967GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2968possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2969filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2970the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2971if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2972
2973* Arguments to user-defined commands
2974
2975User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2976Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2977trivial example:
2978define adder
2979 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2980
2981To execute the command use:
2982adder 1 2 3
2983
2984Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2985Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2986use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2987
2988* New `if' and `while' commands
2989
2990This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2991commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2992expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2993execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2994terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2995`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2996if the expression is zero.
2997
2998* Fortran source language mode
2999
3000GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3001Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3002variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3003with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3004Fortran compilers.
3005
3006* Better HPUX support
3007
3008Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3009running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3010processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3011for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3012that behavior do the following before running the program:
3013
3014 adb -w a.out
3015 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3016 control-d
3017
3018This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3019To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3020
3021 adb -w a.out
3022 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3023 control-d
3024
3025You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3026the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3027external linkage.
3028
3029GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3030HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3031
3032* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3033
3034You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3035commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3036current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3037"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3038associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3039configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3040
3041* New DOS host serial code
3042
3043This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3044no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3045a PC's serial port.
3046
3047*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3048
3049* New "complete" command
3050
3051This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3052were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3053
3054* Trailing space optional in prompt
3055
3056"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3057allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3058
3059* Breakpoint hit counts
3060
3061"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3062has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3063can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3064to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3065less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3066that breakpoint.
3067
3068* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3069
3070"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3071an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3072arrays actually contain only short strings.
3073
3074* Shared library breakpoints
3075
3076In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3077breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3078
3079* Hardware watchpoints
3080
3081There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3082targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3083
55241689 3084Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3085
3086* Annotations
3087
3088Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3089and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3090
3091* Improved Irix 5 support
3092
3093GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3094
3095* Improved HPPA support
3096
3097GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3098
3099* New native configurations
3100
3101Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3102HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3103Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3104RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3105
3106* New targets
3107
3108OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3109MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3110Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3111
3112* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3113
3114There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3115This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3116
3117* Fixes
3118
3119As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3120and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3121
3122*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3123
3124* Irix 5 is now supported
3125
3126* HPPA support
3127
3128GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3129to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3130GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3131of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3132can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3133
3134
3135*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3136
3137* User visible changes:
3138
3139* Remote Debugging
3140
3141The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3142target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3143debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3144integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3145debugging info for the mips target).
3146
3147* DEC Alpha native support
3148
3149GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3150debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3151work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3152Alpha-specific notes.
3153
3154* Preliminary thread implementation
3155
3156GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3157
3158* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3159
3160This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3161to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3162for details).
3163
3164* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3165
3166This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3167mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3168call methods, ...etc.
3169
3170*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3171
3172 * User visible changes:
3173
3174Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3175supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3176other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3177somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3178
3179Filename completion now works.
3180
3181When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3182arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3183addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3184
3185All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3186vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3187should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3188your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3189to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3190
3191 * DEC alpha support
3192
3193This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3194cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3195
3196
3197*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3198
3199 * Testsuite
3200
3201This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3202The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3203via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3204
3205 * C++ demangling
3206
3207'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3208emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3209Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3210disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3211use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3212
3213 * Simulators
3214
3215GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3216So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3217Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3218
3219 * New targets supported
3220
3221H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3222H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3223SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3224Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3225IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3226
3227Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3228version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3229GO32 memory extender.
3230
3231 * New remote protocols
3232
3233MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3234
3235 * New source languages supported
3236
3237This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3238used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3239into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3240
3241
3242*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3243
3244 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3245
3246GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3247version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3248University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3249compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3250format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3251(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3252
3253Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3254
3255 * Faster and better demangling
3256
3257We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3258demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3259character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3260only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3261This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3262increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3263symbol lookups.
3264
3265`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3266from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3267compiler does not actually implement.
3268
3269 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3270
3271In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3272inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3273recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3274very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3275The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3276circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3277fix.
3278
3279The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3280release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3281
3282 * Improved configure script
3283
3284The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3285you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3286host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3287done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3288
3289We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3290version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3291`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3292The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3293only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3294We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3295
3296 * Documentation improvements
3297
3298There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3299produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3300before submitting changes.
3301
3302The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3303M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3304`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3305you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3306a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3307
3308*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3309We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3310been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3311or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3312`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3313around this problem.
3314
3315 * New features
3316
3317GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3318the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3319`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3320the target program.
3321
3322The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3323how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3324
3325 * New native hosts supported
3326
3327HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3328386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3329
3330 * New targets supported
3331
3332AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3333
3334 * New file formats supported
3335
3336BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3337HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3338
3339 * Major bug fixes
3340
3341Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3342
3343We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3344printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3345
3346We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3347for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3348release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3349
3350You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3351will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3352
3353We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3354for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3355especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3356libraries.
3357
3358The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3359information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3360command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3361any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3362when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3363
3364 * Internal improvements
3365
3366GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3367debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3368
3369GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3370Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3371symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3372contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3373shared code that handles any of them.
3374
3375 * New command line options
3376
3377We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3378
3379 * Mmalloc licensing
3380
3381The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3382General Public License.
3383
3384*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3385
3386 * Host/native/target split
3387
3388GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3389hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3390target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3391local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3392ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3393
3394The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3395GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3396is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3397code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3398any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3399built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3400handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3401
3402GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3403It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3404plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3405
3406 * New hosts supported
3407
3408HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3409386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3410386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3411
3412 * New targets supported
3413
3414Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
341568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3416
3417 * New native hosts supported
3418
3419386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3420 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3421386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3422
3423 * New file formats supported
3424
3425BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3426supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3427format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3428
3429 * New commands
3430
3431`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3432`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3433These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3434
3435`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3436
3437You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3438scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3439prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3440executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3441
3442 * C++ improvements
3443
3444We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3445info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3446symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3447
3448Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3449
3450 * Major bug fixes
3451
3452The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3453fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3454by the compiler.
3455
3456We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3457support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3458
3459John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3460slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3461that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3462purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3463the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3464mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3465
3466Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3467about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3468completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3469we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3470
3471 * AMD 29k support
3472
3473A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3474specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3475calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3476usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3477in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3478
3479We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3480Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3481of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3482resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3483
3484 * Remote interfaces
3485
3486We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3487with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3488message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3489This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3490needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3491breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3492each instruction being stepped through.
3493
3494The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3495registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3496
3497There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3498find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3499Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3500processor with a serial port.
3501
3502 * Configuration
3503
3504Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3505`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3506supported, and what files each one uses.
3507
3508 * Library changes
3509
3510There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3511disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3512Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3513disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3514
3515The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3516Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3517can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3518grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3519
3520 * Documentation
3521
3522The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3523reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3524as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3525encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3526system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3527bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3528
3529And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3530
3531
3532*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3533
3534 * Better support for C++ function names
3535
3536GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3537names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3538(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3539single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3540Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3541
3542GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3543the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3544You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3545lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3546for the list of formats.
3547
3548 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3549
3550Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3551C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3552directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3553can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3554usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3555about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3556this problem.)
3557
3558 * New 'maintenance' command
3559
3560All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3561the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3562can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3563
3564 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3565 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3566 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3567 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3568 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3569 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3570
3571The following commands are new:
3572
3573 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3574 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3575 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3576
3577 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3578
3579We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3580(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3581be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3582read after argv processing.
3583
3584 * New hosts supported
3585
3586Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3587
55241689 3588GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3589
3590We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3591is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3592for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3593masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3594fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3595It costs extra.
3596
3597 * New targets supported
3598
3599Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3600
3601 * More smarts about finding #include files
3602
3603GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3604all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3605greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3606especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3607the one that contains your sources.
3608
3609We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3610breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3611try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3612
3613 * Interesting infernals change
3614
3615GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3616section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3617target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3618stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3619
3620 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3621
3622There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3623 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3624 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3625
3626See the ChangeLog for details.
3627
3628*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3629
3630 * New machines supported (host and target)
3631
3632IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3633
3634SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3635
3636 * New malloc package
3637
3638GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3639Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3640capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3641This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3642pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3643more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3644
3645 * info proc
3646
3647The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3648'help info proc' for details.
3649
3650 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3651
3652The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3653Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3654possible.
3655
3656 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3657
3658Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3659support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3660conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3661environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3662that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3663in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3664
3665 * Cross byte order fixes
3666
3667Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3668targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3669
3670 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3671
3672If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3673system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3674`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3675program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3676called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3677Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3678and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3679the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3680option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3681starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3682
3683You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3684the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3685information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3686slower, but makes future operations faster.
3687
3688The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3689build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3690A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3691use is:
3692
3693 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3694
3695The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3696It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3697shared across multiple host platforms.
3698
3699 * longjmp() handling
3700
3701GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3702siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3703all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3704platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3705
3706 * Solaris 2.0
3707
3708Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3709this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3710reading symbols.
3711
3712 * Bug fixes
3713
3714As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3715People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3716crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3717
3718*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3719
3720 * New machines supported (host and target)
3721
3722SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3723 (except core files)
3724BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3725Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3726
3727 * New machines supported (target)
3728
3729AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3730
3731 * C++ support
3732
3733GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3734The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3735per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3736
3737GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3738`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3739extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3740good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3741will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3742released.
3743
3744 * New features for SVR4
3745
3746GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3747shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3748only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3749
3750The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3751on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3752it prints the address mappings of the process.
3753
3754If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3755bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3756
3757 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3758
3759Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3760now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3761skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3762make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3763same code linked statically.
3764
3765 * New Getopt
3766
3767GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3768version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3769continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3770Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3771added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3772future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3773
3774 * Bugs fixed
3775
3776The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3777Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3778See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3779
3780
3781*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3782
3783 * New machines supported (host and target)
3784
3785Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3786NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3787Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3788
3789 * Almost SCO Unix support
3790
3791We had hoped to support:
3792SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3793(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3794that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3795about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3796
3797 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3798
3799GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3800debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3801is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3802send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3803reqired (if any).
3804
3805 * New Readline
3806
3807GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3808is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3809required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3810
3811 * Bugs fixed
3812
3813The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3814Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3815See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3816
3817 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3818
3819GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3820supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3821symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3822
3823Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3824mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3825debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3826mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3827version 2.
3828
3829Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3830really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3831line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3832variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3833situation somewhat.
3834
3835When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3836However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3837methods.
3838
3839We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3840DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3841encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3842
3843
3844*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3845
3846 * Improved configuration
3847
3848Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3849Porting BFD is simpler.
3850
3851 * Stepping improved
3852
3853The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3854of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3855in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3856function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3857
3858 * Bug fixing
3859
3860Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3861
3862 * New host supported (not target)
3863
3864Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3865
3866
3867*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3868
3869 * Multiple source language support
3870
3871GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3872It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3873and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3874language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3875You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3876`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3877
3878 * GDB and Modula-2
3879
3880GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3881currently under development at the State University of New York at
3882Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3883continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3884
3885Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3886debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3887symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3888
3889There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3890in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3891
3892 * set write on/off
3893
3894GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3895a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3896the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3897by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3898effect immediately.
3899
3900 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3901
3902When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3903shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3904The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3905examining core files.
3906
3907 * set listsize
3908
3909You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3910The default is 10.
3911
3912 * New machines supported (host and target)
3913
3914SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3915Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3916Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3917
3918 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3919
3920IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3921
3922 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3923
3924AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3925AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3926Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3927
3928 * New remote interfaces
3929
3930AMD 29000 Adapt
3931AMD 29000 Minimon
3932
3933
3934*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3935
3936 * New Facilities
3937
3938Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3939
3940Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3941target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3942is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3943remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3944remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3945also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3946using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3947stub on the target system.
3948
3949New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3950
3951GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3952library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3953object file types such as a.out and coff.
3954
3955There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3956refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3957
3958
3959 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3960
3961All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3962by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3963
3964For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3965``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3966Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3967
3968What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3969print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3970will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3971all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3972
3973confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3974 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3975 it is already running. Default is ON.
3976
3977editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3978 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3979 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3980 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3981 Default is ON.
3982
3983history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3984 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3985 or the value of the environment variable
3986 GDBHISTFILE.
3987
3988history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3989 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3990 HISTSIZE.
3991
3992history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3993 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3994 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3995
3996history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3997 history expansion will be performed on
3998 command line input. The default is OFF.
3999
4000radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4001 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4002 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4003
4004height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4005 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4006 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4007 variable TERM.
4008
4009width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4010 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4011 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4012 variable TERM.
4013
4014Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4015``set width'' instead.
4016
4017print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4018 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4019 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4020 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4021
4022print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4023 is OFF.
4024
4025print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4026 "raw" form if off.
4027
4028print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4029 like instructions.
4030
4031print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4032
4033
4034 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4035
4036The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4037new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4038are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4039window.
4040
4041
4042 * Support for Shared Libraries
4043
4044GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4045Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4046before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4047happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4048At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4049from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4050shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4051It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4052
4053sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4054 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4055 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4056
4057info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4058
4059
4060 * Watchpoints
4061
4062A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4063expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4064tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4065quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4066problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4067more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4068
4069watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4070
4071info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4072
4073delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4074disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4075enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4076
4077
4078 * C++ multiple inheritance
4079
4080When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4081for C++ programs.
4082
4083 * C++ exception handling
4084
4085Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4086ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4087the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4088handler's context).
4089
4090catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4091 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4092 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4093
4094info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4095 current stack frame.
4096
4097
4098 * Minor command changes
4099
4100The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4101command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4102is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4103
4104The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4105at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4106frames without printing.
4107
4108 * New directory command
4109
4110'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4111The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4112about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4113with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4114find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4115
4116 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4117
4118For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4119for more details.
4120
4121GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4122two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4123Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4124where the program that you are debugging will run.
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