* readelf.c (GET_DATA_ALLOC): Remove.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.0:
5
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6* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
7
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8* New native configurations
9
10Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
11x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
12
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13* New targets
14
17e78a56 15* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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16
17x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 18Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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19Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
20 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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21TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
22WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 23Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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24PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
25PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
26PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 27SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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28Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
29ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 30Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 31
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32stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
33kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
34
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35Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
36been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
37configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
38permanently REMOVED.
39
a196c81c 40* REMOVED configurations and files
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41
42Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
43Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
44Pyramid pyramid-*-*
45ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
46Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 47ser-ocd.c *-*-*
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48
49* Other news:
50
51* All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
52
53Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
54
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55* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
56
57The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
58``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
59contents of this file.
60
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61* gdba.el deleted
62
63GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 64
9debab2f 65*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 66
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67* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
68
69Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
70programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
71displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
72greater level of detail.
73
74* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
75
76It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
77bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
78on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
79written.
80
81* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
82
83The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
84necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
85machines ``out of the box''.
86
87The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
88possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
89signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
90would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
91interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
92
93It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
94standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
95even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
96and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
97terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
98
99The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
100enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
101also works.
102
103DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
104GDB.
105
106It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
107directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
108times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
109breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
110
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111* New native configurations
112
113ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 114PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 115
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116* New targets
117
96baa820 118Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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119x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
120PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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121TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
122
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123* OBSOLETE configurations
124
125Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
126Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 127Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 128ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 129Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 130
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131Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
132but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
133these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
134be permanently REMOVED.
135
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136* Gould support removed
137
138Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
139
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140* New features for SVR4
141
142On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
143without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
144load symbols from the running process's executable file.
145
146* Many C++ enhancements
147
148C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
149in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
150
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151* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
152
153A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
154sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
155with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
156``|<program> <args>'' vis:
157
158 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
159 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
160
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161* MIPS 64 remote protocol
162
163A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
164expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
165instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
166
167The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
168added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
169
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170* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
171
172The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
173``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
174include ``set remote P-packet''.
175
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176* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
177
178The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
179accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
180``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
181
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182* ``apropos'' command added.
183
184The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
185documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
186try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
187
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188* New MI interface
189
190A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
191interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
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192process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
193"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
194enabled by configuring with:
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195
196 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
197
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198*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
199
200* New native configurations
201
202HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
203HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
204M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
205
206* New targets
207
208Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
209Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
210Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
211
212* OBSOLETE configurations
213
214Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
215
216Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
217but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
218these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
219be permanently REMOVED.
220
221* ANSI/ISO C
222
223As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
224buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
225containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
226use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
227available. If this is not true, please report the affected
228configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
229information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
230already.
231
232* Readline 2.2
233
234GDB now uses readline 2.2.
235
236* set extension-language
237
238You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
239languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
240you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
241 set extension-language .c c++
242The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
243and their associated languages.
244
245* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
246
247When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
248you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
249PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
250
251 set processor NAME
252
253sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
254following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
255
256 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
257 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
258 403 IBM PowerPC 403
259 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
260 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
261 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
262 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
263 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
264 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
265 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
266 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
267
268At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
269special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
270registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
271only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
272
273* HP-UX support
274
275Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
276more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
277library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
278support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
279for xdb and dbx commands.
280
281* Catchpoints
282
283HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
284generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
285to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
286
287This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
288argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
289output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
290
291* Debugging across forks
292
293On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
294in the inferior.
295
296* TUI
297
298HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
299it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
300configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
301
302* GDB remote protocol additions
303
304A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
305Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
306fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
307allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
308
309For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
310full 64-bit address. The command
311
312 set remoteaddresssize 32
313
314can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
315the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
316will be discarded.
317
318In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
319command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
320
321 maint packet heythere
322
323sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
324disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
325time.
326
327The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
328target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
329downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
330
331* Tracing can collect general expressions
332
333You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
334further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
335doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
336
337* mask-address variable for Mips
338
339For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
340a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
341of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
342
343* Higher serial baud rates
344
345GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
346230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
347to achieve all of these rates.)
348
349* i960 simulator
350
351The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
352builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
353
354
355*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
356
357* New native configurations
358
359Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
360Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
361Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
362PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
363PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
364Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
365Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
366
367* New targets
368
369Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
370Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
371Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
372Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
373MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
374MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
375MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
376Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
377Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
378Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
379NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
380
381* New debugging protocols
382
383ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
384M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
385DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
386PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
387PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
388Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
389
390* DWARF 2
391
392All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
393format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
394information.
395
396* Java frontend
397
398GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
399only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
400
401* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
402
403For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
404loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
405locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
406
407* Live range splitting
408
409GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
410range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
411more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
412
413* Hurd support
414
415GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
416updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
417
418* ARM Thumb support
419
420GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
421instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
422instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
423accordingly.
424
425* MIPS16 support
426
427GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
428instruction set.
429
430* Overlay support
431
432GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
433linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
434will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
435control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
436additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
437in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
438
439* info symbol
440
441The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
442the symbol at the specified address.
443
444* Trace support
445
446The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
447asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
448extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
449includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
450file tracepoint.c for more details.
451
452* MIPS simulator
453
454Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
455by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
456of most MIPS variants.
457
458* Sparc simulator
459
460Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
461by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
462Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
463
464* set architecture
465
466For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
467basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
468architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
469the possible architectures.
470
471*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
472
473* New native configurations
474
475Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
476M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
477PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
478PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
479PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
480RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
481
482* New targets
483
484ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
485I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
486MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
487MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
488PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
489Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
490Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
491
492* PowerPC simulator
493
494The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
495contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
496PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
497basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
498performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
499
500* Solaris 2.5
501
502GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
503
504* Windows 95/NT native
505
506GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
507To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
508which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
509Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
510ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
511
512* dont-repeat command
513
514If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
515command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
516useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
517extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
518
519* Send break instead of ^C
520
521The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
522rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
523GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
524
525* Remote protocol timeout
526
527The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
528that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
529to read from the target. The default value is 2.
530
531* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
532
533By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
534loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
535stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
536when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
537in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
538
539Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
540/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
541automatically on hpux10.
542
543* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
544
545Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
546
547* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
548
549When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
550may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
551the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
552every character. The default value is 1050.
553
554* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
555
556If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
557a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
558replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
559details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
560remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
561to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
562
563* Speedups for remote debugging
564
565GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
566the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
567and more efficient S-record downloading.
568
569* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
570
571GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
572Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
573
574*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
575
576* Psymtabs for XCOFF
577
578The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
579can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
580
581* Remote targets use caching
582
583Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
584remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
585it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
586debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
587off' turns the the data cache off.
588
589* Remote targets may have threads
590
591The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
592in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
593gdb/remote.c for details.
594
595* NetROM support
596
597If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
598support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
599acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
600write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
601support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
602another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
603sequence is something like
604
605 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
606 load <prog>
607 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
608
609* Macintosh host
610
611GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
612may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
613it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
614available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
615device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
616directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
617scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
618mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
619
620* Autoconf
621
622GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
623but does simplify configuration and building.
624
625* hpux10
626
627GDB now supports hpux10.
628
629*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
630
631* New native configurations
632
633x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
634x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
635NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
636Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
637
638* New targets
639
640A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
641HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
642CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
643PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
644WDC 65816 w65-*-*
645
646* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
647
648GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
649possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
650filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
651the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
652if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
653
654* Arguments to user-defined commands
655
656User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
657Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
658trivial example:
659define adder
660 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
661
662To execute the command use:
663adder 1 2 3
664
665Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
666Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
667use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
668
669* New `if' and `while' commands
670
671This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
672commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
673expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
674execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
675terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
676`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
677if the expression is zero.
678
679* Fortran source language mode
680
681GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
682Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
683variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
684with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
685Fortran compilers.
686
687* Better HPUX support
688
689Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
690running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
691processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
692for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
693that behavior do the following before running the program:
694
695 adb -w a.out
696 __dld_flags?W 0x5
697 control-d
698
699This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
700To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
701
702 adb -w a.out
703 __dld_flags?W 0x4
704 control-d
705
706You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
707the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
708external linkage.
709
710GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
711HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
712
713* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
714
715You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
716commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
717current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
718"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
719associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
720configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
721
722* New DOS host serial code
723
724This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
725no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
726a PC's serial port.
727
728*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
729
730* New "complete" command
731
732This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
733were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
734
735* Trailing space optional in prompt
736
737"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
738allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
739
740* Breakpoint hit counts
741
742"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
743has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
744can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
745to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
746less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
747that breakpoint.
748
749* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
750
751"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
752an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
753arrays actually contain only short strings.
754
755* Shared library breakpoints
756
757In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
758breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
759
760* Hardware watchpoints
761
762There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
763targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
764
765Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
766
767* Annotations
768
769Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
770and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
771
772* Improved Irix 5 support
773
774GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
775
776* Improved HPPA support
777
778GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
779
780* New native configurations
781
782Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
783HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
784Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
785RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
786
787* New targets
788
789OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
790MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
791Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
792
793* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
794
795There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
796This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
797
798* Fixes
799
800As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
801and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
802
803*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
804
805* Irix 5 is now supported
806
807* HPPA support
808
809GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
810to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
811GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
812of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
813can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
814
815
816*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
817
818* User visible changes:
819
820* Remote Debugging
821
822The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
823target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
824debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
825integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
826debugging info for the mips target).
827
828* DEC Alpha native support
829
830GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
831debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
832work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
833Alpha-specific notes.
834
835* Preliminary thread implementation
836
837GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
838
839* LynxOS native and target support for 386
840
841This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
842to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
843for details).
844
845* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
846
847This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
848mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
849call methods, ...etc.
850
851*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
852
853 * User visible changes:
854
855Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
856supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
857other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
858somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
859
860Filename completion now works.
861
862When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
863arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
864addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
865
866All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
867vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
868should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
869your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
870to be on the far side of a thin network line.
871
872 * DEC alpha support
873
874This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
875cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
876
877
878*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
879
880 * Testsuite
881
882This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
883The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
884via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
885
886 * C++ demangling
887
888'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
889emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
890Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
891disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
892use gdb with AT&T cfront.
893
894 * Simulators
895
896GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
897So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
898Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
899
900 * New targets supported
901
902H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
903H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
904SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
905Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
906IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
907
908Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
909version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
910GO32 memory extender.
911
912 * New remote protocols
913
914MIPS remote debugging protocol.
915
916 * New source languages supported
917
918This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
919used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
920into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
921
922
923*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
924
925 * HP Precision Architecture supported
926
927GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
928version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
929University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
930compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
931format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
932(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
933
934Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
935
936 * Faster and better demangling
937
938We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
939demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
940character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
941only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
942This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
943increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
944symbol lookups.
945
946`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
947from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
948compiler does not actually implement.
949
950 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
951
952In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
953inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
954recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
955very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
956The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
957circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
958fix.
959
960The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
961release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
962
963 * Improved configure script
964
965The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
966you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
967host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
968done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
969
970We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
971version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
972`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
973The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
974only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
975We hope to make this the default in a future release.
976
977 * Documentation improvements
978
979There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
980produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
981before submitting changes.
982
983The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
984M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
985`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
986you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
987a future texinfo-X.Y release.
988
989*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
990We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
991been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
992or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
993`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
994around this problem.
995
996 * New features
997
998GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
999the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1000`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1001the target program.
1002
1003The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1004how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1005
1006 * New native hosts supported
1007
1008HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1009386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1010
1011 * New targets supported
1012
1013AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1014
1015 * New file formats supported
1016
1017BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1018HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1019
1020 * Major bug fixes
1021
1022Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1023
1024We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1025printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1026
1027We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1028for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1029release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1030
1031You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1032will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1033
1034We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1035for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1036especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1037libraries.
1038
1039The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1040information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1041command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1042any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1043when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1044
1045 * Internal improvements
1046
1047GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1048debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1049
1050GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1051Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1052symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1053contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1054shared code that handles any of them.
1055
1056 * New command line options
1057
1058We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1059
1060 * Mmalloc licensing
1061
1062The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1063General Public License.
1064
1065*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1066
1067 * Host/native/target split
1068
1069GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1070hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1071target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1072local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1073ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1074
1075The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1076GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1077is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1078code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1079any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1080built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1081handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1082
1083GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1084It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1085plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1086
1087 * New hosts supported
1088
1089HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1090386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1091386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1092
1093 * New targets supported
1094
1095Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
109668030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1097
1098 * New native hosts supported
1099
1100386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1101 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1102386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1103
1104 * New file formats supported
1105
1106BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1107supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1108format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1109
1110 * New commands
1111
1112`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1113`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1114These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1115
1116`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1117
1118You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1119scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1120prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1121executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1122
1123 * C++ improvements
1124
1125We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1126info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1127symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1128
1129Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1130
1131 * Major bug fixes
1132
1133The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1134fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1135by the compiler.
1136
1137We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1138support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1139
1140John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1141slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1142that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1143purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1144the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1145mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1146
1147Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1148about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1149completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1150we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1151
1152 * AMD 29k support
1153
1154A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1155specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1156calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1157usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1158in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1159
1160We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1161Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1162of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1163resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1164
1165 * Remote interfaces
1166
1167We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1168with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1169message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1170This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1171needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1172breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1173each instruction being stepped through.
1174
1175The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1176registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1177
1178There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1179find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1180Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1181processor with a serial port.
1182
1183 * Configuration
1184
1185Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1186`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1187supported, and what files each one uses.
1188
1189 * Library changes
1190
1191There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1192disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1193Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1194disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1195
1196The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1197Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1198can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1199grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1200
1201 * Documentation
1202
1203The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1204reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1205as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1206encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1207system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1208bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1209
1210And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1211
1212
1213*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1214
1215 * Better support for C++ function names
1216
1217GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1218names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1219(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1220single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1221Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1222
1223GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1224the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1225You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1226lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1227for the list of formats.
1228
1229 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1230
1231Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1232C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1233directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1234can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1235usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1236about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1237this problem.)
1238
1239 * New 'maintenance' command
1240
1241All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1242the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1243can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1244
1245 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1246 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1247 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1248 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1249 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1250 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1251
1252The following commands are new:
1253
1254 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1255 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1256 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1257
1258 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1259
1260We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1261(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1262be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1263read after argv processing.
1264
1265 * New hosts supported
1266
1267Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1268
1269Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1270
1271We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1272is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1273for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1274masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1275fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1276It costs extra.
1277
1278 * New targets supported
1279
1280Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1281
1282 * More smarts about finding #include files
1283
1284GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1285all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1286greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1287especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1288the one that contains your sources.
1289
1290We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1291breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1292try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1293
1294 * Interesting infernals change
1295
1296GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1297section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1298target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1299stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1300
1301 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1302
1303There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1304 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1305 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1306
1307See the ChangeLog for details.
1308
1309*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1310
1311 * New machines supported (host and target)
1312
1313IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1314
1315SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1316
1317 * New malloc package
1318
1319GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1320Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1321capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1322This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1323pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1324more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1325
1326 * info proc
1327
1328The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1329'help info proc' for details.
1330
1331 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1332
1333The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1334Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1335possible.
1336
1337 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1338
1339Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1340support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1341conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1342environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1343that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1344in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1345
1346 * Cross byte order fixes
1347
1348Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1349targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1350
1351 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1352
1353If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1354system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1355`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1356program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1357called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1358Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1359and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1360the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1361option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1362starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1363
1364You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1365the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1366information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1367slower, but makes future operations faster.
1368
1369The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1370build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1371A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1372use is:
1373
1374 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1375
1376The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1377It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1378shared across multiple host platforms.
1379
1380 * longjmp() handling
1381
1382GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1383siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1384all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1385platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1386
1387 * Solaris 2.0
1388
1389Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1390this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1391reading symbols.
1392
1393 * Bug fixes
1394
1395As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1396People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1397crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1398
1399*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1400
1401 * New machines supported (host and target)
1402
1403SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1404 (except core files)
1405BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1406Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1407
1408 * New machines supported (target)
1409
1410AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1411
1412 * C++ support
1413
1414GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1415The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1416per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1417
1418GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1419`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1420extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1421good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1422will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1423released.
1424
1425 * New features for SVR4
1426
1427GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1428shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1429only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1430
1431The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1432on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1433it prints the address mappings of the process.
1434
1435If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1436bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1437
1438 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1439
1440Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1441now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1442skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1443make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1444same code linked statically.
1445
1446 * New Getopt
1447
1448GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1449version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1450continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1451Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1452added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1453future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1454
1455 * Bugs fixed
1456
1457The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1458Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1459See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1460
1461
1462*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1463
1464 * New machines supported (host and target)
1465
1466Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1467NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1468Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1469
1470 * Almost SCO Unix support
1471
1472We had hoped to support:
1473SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1474(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1475that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1476about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1477
1478 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1479
1480GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1481debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1482is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1483send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1484reqired (if any).
1485
1486 * New Readline
1487
1488GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1489is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1490required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1491
1492 * Bugs fixed
1493
1494The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1495Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1496See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1497
1498 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1499
1500GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1501supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1502symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1503
1504Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1505mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1506debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1507mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1508version 2.
1509
1510Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1511really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1512line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1513variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1514situation somewhat.
1515
1516When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1517However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1518methods.
1519
1520We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1521DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1522encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1523
1524
1525*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1526
1527 * Improved configuration
1528
1529Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1530Porting BFD is simpler.
1531
1532 * Stepping improved
1533
1534The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1535of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1536in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1537function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1538
1539 * Bug fixing
1540
1541Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1542
1543 * New host supported (not target)
1544
1545Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1546
1547
1548*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1549
1550 * Multiple source language support
1551
1552GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1553It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1554and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1555language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1556You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1557`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1558
1559 * GDB and Modula-2
1560
1561GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1562currently under development at the State University of New York at
1563Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1564continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1565
1566Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1567debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1568symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1569
1570There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1571in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1572
1573 * set write on/off
1574
1575GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1576a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1577the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1578by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1579effect immediately.
1580
1581 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1582
1583When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1584shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1585The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1586examining core files.
1587
1588 * set listsize
1589
1590You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1591The default is 10.
1592
1593 * New machines supported (host and target)
1594
1595SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1596Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1597Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1598
1599 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1600
1601IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1602
1603 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1604
1605AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1606AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1607Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1608
1609 * New remote interfaces
1610
1611AMD 29000 Adapt
1612AMD 29000 Minimon
1613
1614
1615*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1616
1617 * New Facilities
1618
1619Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1620
1621Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1622target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1623is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1624remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1625remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1626also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1627using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1628stub on the target system.
1629
1630New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1631
1632GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1633library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1634object file types such as a.out and coff.
1635
1636There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1637refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1638
1639
1640 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1641
1642All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1643by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1644
1645For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1646``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1647Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1648
1649What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1650print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1651will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1652all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1653
1654confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1655 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1656 it is already running. Default is ON.
1657
1658editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1659 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1660 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1661 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1662 Default is ON.
1663
1664history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1665 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1666 or the value of the environment variable
1667 GDBHISTFILE.
1668
1669history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1670 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1671 HISTSIZE.
1672
1673history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1674 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1675 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1676
1677history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1678 history expansion will be performed on
1679 command line input. The default is OFF.
1680
1681radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1682 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1683 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1684
1685height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1686 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1687 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1688 variable TERM.
1689
1690width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1691 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1692 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1693 variable TERM.
1694
1695Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1696``set width'' instead.
1697
1698print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1699 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1700 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1701 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1702
1703print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1704 is OFF.
1705
1706print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1707 "raw" form if off.
1708
1709print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1710 like instructions.
1711
1712print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1713
1714
1715 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1716
1717The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1718new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1719are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1720window.
1721
1722
1723 * Support for Shared Libraries
1724
1725GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1726Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1727before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1728happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1729At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1730from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1731shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1732It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1733
1734sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1735 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1736 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1737
1738info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1739
1740
1741 * Watchpoints
1742
1743A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1744expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1745tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1746quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1747problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1748more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1749
1750watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1751
1752info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1753
1754delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1755disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1756enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1757
1758
1759 * C++ multiple inheritance
1760
1761When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1762for C++ programs.
1763
1764 * C++ exception handling
1765
1766Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1767ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1768the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1769handler's context).
1770
1771catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1772 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1773 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1774
1775info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1776 current stack frame.
1777
1778
1779 * Minor command changes
1780
1781The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1782command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1783is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1784
1785The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1786at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1787frames without printing.
1788
1789 * New directory command
1790
1791'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1792The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1793about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1794with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1795find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1796
1797 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1798
1799For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1800for more details.
1801
1802GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1803two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1804Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1805where the program that you are debugging will run.
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