2003-09-25 Andrew Cagney <cagney@redhat.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.0:
5
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6* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
7
8The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
9and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
10tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
11
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12* REMOVED configurations and files
13
14SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
15SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
16
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17*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
18
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19* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
20
21DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
22information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
23By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
24backtraces.
25
26The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
27have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
28DWARF 2 CFI support.
29
30* Hosted file I/O.
31
32GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
33file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
34remote protocol documentation for details.
35
36* All targets using the new architecture framework.
37
38All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
39architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
40to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
41ppc32 on ppc64).
42
43* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
44
45GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
46per-thread variables.
47
48* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
49
50GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
51GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
52
53* Separate debug info.
54
55GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
56automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
57of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
58system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
59and optional debug files.
60
61* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
62
63DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
64describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
65debugger.
66
67GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
68for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
69
70* Java
71
72A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
73Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
74considered "useable".
75
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76* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
77
78The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
79commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
80kernel.
81
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82* GDB supports logging output to a file
83
84There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
85used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 86
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87* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
88
89The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
90disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
91command.
92
e286caf2 93* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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94
95The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
96registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
97
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98* Profiling support
99
100A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
101be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
102session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
103"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
104data, for more informative profiling results.
105
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106* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
107
108The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
109option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 110"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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111
112Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
113removed.
114
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115Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
116Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
117Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
118 in a subsequent -var-update.
119
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120* New native configurations.
121
122FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
123
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124* Multi-arched targets.
125
b4263afa 126HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
880bc914 127Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 128
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129* OBSOLETE configurations and files
130
131Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
132been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
133configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
134permanently REMOVED.
135
8b0e5691 136Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 137Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 138H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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139HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
140HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
141HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 142PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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143Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
144 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
145 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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146Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
147Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 148
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149* REMOVED configurations and files
150
151V850EA ISA
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152Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
153IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
154i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
155i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
156i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
157HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
158 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
159 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
160Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
161Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
162Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
163OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
164I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 165
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166* MIPS $fp behavior changed
167
168The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
169the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
170context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
171address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
172The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
173
299ffc64 174*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 175
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176* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
177
178When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
179`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
180in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
181library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
182shared libs like mad''.
183
b9d14705 184* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 185
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186Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
187the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
188arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
189powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 190
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191* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
192
193GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
194and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
195they expand.
196
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197The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
198invocations in expression, and shows the result.
199
200The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
201macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
202
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203Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
204information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
205your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
206information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
207
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208* Multi-arched targets.
209
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210DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
211DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 212NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 213National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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214Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
215Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 216
cd9bfe15 217* New targets.
e33ce519 218
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219Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
220
e33ce519 221
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222* New native configurations
223
224Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 225SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 226MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 227UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 228
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229* OBSOLETE configurations and files
230
231Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
232been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
233configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
234permanently REMOVED.
235
92eb23c5 236Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 237OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 238IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 239Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 240Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 241Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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242i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
243i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
244i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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245HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
246 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
247 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 248I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 249
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250* OBSOLETE languages
251
252CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
253
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254* REMOVED configurations and files
255
256AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
257A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
258AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
259AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
260AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
261
262testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
263
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264* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
265
266This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
267commands. The default is 1024.
268
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269* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
270
271Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
272
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273* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
274
275These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
276to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
277from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 278
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279* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
280
281The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
282including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
283of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
284
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285*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
286
287* New targets.
288
289Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
290
291* Bug fixes
292
293gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
294mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
295Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
296
297gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
298dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
299Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
300
301Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
302Surprisingly enough, it works now.
303By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
304
305i386 hardware watchpoint support:
306avoid misses on second run for some targets.
307By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
308
37057839 309*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 310
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311* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
312
313This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
314really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
315In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
316target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
317This can be a significant performance improvement on some
318(notably embedded) targets.
319
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320* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
321
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322This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
323process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
324GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
325hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 326
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327* New command line option
328
329GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
330
331* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
332
333There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
334command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
335a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
336be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
337open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
338issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
339a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
340it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
341GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
342is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
343
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344* Changes in ARM configurations.
345
346Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
347configuration is fully multi-arch.
348
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349* New native configurations
350
fe419ffc 351ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 352x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 353AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 354Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 355
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356* New targets
357
358Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
359
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360* OBSOLETE configurations and files
361
362Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
363been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
364configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
365permanently REMOVED.
366
367AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
368A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
369AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
370AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
371AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
372
b4ceaee6 373testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 374
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375* REMOVED configurations and files
376
377TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 378WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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379PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
380PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
381PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 382Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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383Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
384 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 385SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 386Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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387Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
388ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 389Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 390
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391* Changes to command line processing
392
393The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
394for the inferior from gdb's command line.
395
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396* Changes to key bindings
397
398There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
399
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400*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
401
402Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
403
404Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
405corrupted.
406
407Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
408
409Numerous documentation fixes.
410
411Numerous testsuite fixes.
412
34f47bc4 413*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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414
415* New native configurations
416
417Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
418x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 419MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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420MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
421ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 422s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 423
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424* New targets
425
def90278 426Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 427CRIS cris-axis
55241689 428UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 429
17e78a56 430* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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431
432x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 433Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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434Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
435 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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436TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
437WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 438Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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439PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
440PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
441PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 442SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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443Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
444ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 445Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 446
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447stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
448kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
449
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450Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
451been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
452configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
453permanently REMOVED.
454
a196c81c 455* REMOVED configurations and files
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456
457Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
458Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
459Pyramid pyramid-*-*
460ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
461Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 462ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 463
6d6b80e5 464* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 465
6d6b80e5 466GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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467sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
468present.
469
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470* Other news:
471
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472* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
473
474* The MI enabled by default.
475
476The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
477revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
478engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
479using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
480which is now deprecated.
481
482* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
483
484GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
485main features are supported:
486
487 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
488
489 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
490 extension;
491
492 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
493
494 - a Pascal expression parser.
495
496However, some important features are not yet supported.
497
498 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
499
500 - there are some problems with boolean types;
501
502 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
503 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
504
505 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
506
507 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
508
509* Changes in completion.
510
511Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
512to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
513users expect at the shell prompt.
514
515Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
516`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
517program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
518files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
519be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
520considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
521name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
522
523`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
524
525* New platform-independent commands:
526
527It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
528hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
529documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
530
531* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
532
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533Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
534revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
535many threads as your system allows you to have.
536
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537Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
538
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539Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
540multi-threaded programs though.
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541
542* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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543
544Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
545
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546GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
547debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
548supported.)
549
550* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
551
552Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
553breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
554implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
555put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
556and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
557registers.
558
559The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
560debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
561watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
562
563* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
564
565New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
566the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
567
568New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
569display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
570IDT.
571
572New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
573from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
574New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
575a given linear address.
576
577GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
578program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
579which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
580
581DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
582
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EZ
583It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
584
e23194cb
EZ
585* Changes in documentation.
586
587All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
588Documentation License.
589
590Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
591manual.
592
593TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
594
595Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
596manual.
597
598The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
599documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
600hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
601
5d6640b1
AC
602* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
603
604The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
605``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
606contents of this file.
607
1a1d8446
AC
608* gdba.el deleted
609
610GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 611
9debab2f 612*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 613
c63ce875
EZ
614* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
615
616Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
617programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
618displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
619greater level of detail.
620
621* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
622
623It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
624bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
625on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
626written.
627
628* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
629
630The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
631necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
632machines ``out of the box''.
633
634The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
635possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
636signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
637would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
638interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
639
640It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
641standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
642even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
643and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
644terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
645
646The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
647enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
648also works.
649
650DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
651GDB.
652
653It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
654directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
655times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
656breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
657
ed9a39eb
JM
658* New native configurations
659
660ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 661PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 662
7a292a7a
SS
663* New targets
664
96baa820 665Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
666x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
667PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
668TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
669
085dd6e6
JM
670* OBSOLETE configurations
671
672Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
673Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 674Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 675ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 676Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 677
9debab2f
AC
678Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
679but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
680these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
681be permanently REMOVED.
682
5330533d
SS
683* Gould support removed
684
685Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
686
bc9e5bbf
AC
687* New features for SVR4
688
689On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
690without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
691load symbols from the running process's executable file.
692
693* Many C++ enhancements
694
695C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
696in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
697
adf40b2e
JM
698* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
699
700A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
701sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
702with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
703``|<program> <args>'' vis:
704
705 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
706 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
707
43e526b9
JM
708* MIPS 64 remote protocol
709
710A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
711expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
712instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
713
714The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
715added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
716
96baa820
JM
717* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
718
719The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
720``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
721include ``set remote P-packet''.
722
11cf8741
JM
723* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
724
725The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
726accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
727``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
728
7876dd43
DB
729* ``apropos'' command added.
730
731The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
732documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
733try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
734
bc9e5bbf
AC
735* New MI interface
736
737A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
738interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
739process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
740"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
741enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
742
743 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
744
c906108c
SS
745*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
746
747* New native configurations
748
749HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
750HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 751M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
752
753* New targets
754
755Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
756Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
757Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
758
759* OBSOLETE configurations
760
761Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
762
763Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
764but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
765these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
766be permanently REMOVED.
767
768* ANSI/ISO C
769
770As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
771buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
772containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
773use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
774available. If this is not true, please report the affected
775configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
776information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
777already.
778
779* Readline 2.2
780
781GDB now uses readline 2.2.
782
783* set extension-language
784
785You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
786languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
787you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
788 set extension-language .c c++
789The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
790and their associated languages.
791
792* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
793
794When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
795you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
796PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
797
798 set processor NAME
799
800sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
801following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
802
803 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
804 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
805 403 IBM PowerPC 403
806 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
807 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
808 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
809 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
810 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
811 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
812 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
813 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
814
815At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
816special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
817registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
818only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
819
820* HP-UX support
821
822Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
823more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
824library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
825support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
826for xdb and dbx commands.
827
828* Catchpoints
829
830HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
831generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
832to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
833
834This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
835argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
836output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
837
838* Debugging across forks
839
840On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
841in the inferior.
842
843* TUI
844
845HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
846it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
847configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
848
849* GDB remote protocol additions
850
851A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
852Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
853fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
854allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
855
856For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
857full 64-bit address. The command
858
859 set remoteaddresssize 32
860
861can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
862the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
863will be discarded.
864
865In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
866command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
867
868 maint packet heythere
869
870sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
871disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
872time.
873
874The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
875target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
876downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
877
878* Tracing can collect general expressions
879
880You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
881further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
882doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
883
884* mask-address variable for Mips
885
886For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
887a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
888of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
889
890* Higher serial baud rates
891
892GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
893230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
894to achieve all of these rates.)
895
896* i960 simulator
897
898The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
899builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
900
901
902*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
903
904* New native configurations
905
906Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
907Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
908Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
909PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
910PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
911Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
912Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
913
914* New targets
915
916Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
917Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
918Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
919Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
920MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
921MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
922MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
923Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
924Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
925Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
926NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
927
928* New debugging protocols
929
930ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
931M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
932DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
933PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
934PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
935Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
936
937* DWARF 2
938
939All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
940format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
941information.
942
943* Java frontend
944
945GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
946only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
947
948* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
949
950For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
951loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
952locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
953
954* Live range splitting
955
956GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
957range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
958more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
959
960* Hurd support
961
962GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
963updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
964
965* ARM Thumb support
966
967GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
968instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
969instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
970accordingly.
971
972* MIPS16 support
973
974GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
975instruction set.
976
977* Overlay support
978
979GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
980linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
981will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
982control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
983additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
984in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
985
986* info symbol
987
988The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
989the symbol at the specified address.
990
991* Trace support
992
993The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
994asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
995extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
996includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
997file tracepoint.c for more details.
998
999* MIPS simulator
1000
1001Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1002by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1003of most MIPS variants.
1004
1005* Sparc simulator
1006
1007Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1008by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1009Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1010
1011* set architecture
1012
1013For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1014basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1015architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1016the possible architectures.
1017
1018*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1019
1020* New native configurations
1021
1022Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1023M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1024PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1025PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1026PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1027RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1028
1029* New targets
1030
1031ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1032I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1033MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1034MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1035PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1036Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1037Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1038
1039* PowerPC simulator
1040
1041The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1042contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1043PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1044basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1045performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1046
1047* Solaris 2.5
1048
1049GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1050
1051* Windows 95/NT native
1052
1053GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1054To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1055which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1056Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1057ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1058
1059* dont-repeat command
1060
1061If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1062command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1063useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1064extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1065
1066* Send break instead of ^C
1067
1068The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1069rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1070GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1071
1072* Remote protocol timeout
1073
1074The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1075that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1076to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1077
1078* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1079
1080By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1081loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1082stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1083when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1084in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1085
1086Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1087/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1088automatically on hpux10.
1089
1090* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1091
1092Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1093
1094* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1095
1096When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1097may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1098the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1099every character. The default value is 1050.
1100
1101* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1102
1103If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1104a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1105replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1106details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1107remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1108to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1109
1110* Speedups for remote debugging
1111
1112GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1113the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1114and more efficient S-record downloading.
1115
1116* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1117
1118GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1119Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1120
1121*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1122
1123* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1124
1125The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1126can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1127
1128* Remote targets use caching
1129
1130Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1131remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1132it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1133debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1134off' turns the the data cache off.
1135
1136* Remote targets may have threads
1137
1138The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1139in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1140gdb/remote.c for details.
1141
1142* NetROM support
1143
1144If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1145support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1146acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1147write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1148support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1149another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1150sequence is something like
1151
1152 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1153 load <prog>
1154 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1155
1156* Macintosh host
1157
1158GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1159may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1160it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1161available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1162device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1163directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1164scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1165mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1166
1167* Autoconf
1168
1169GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1170but does simplify configuration and building.
1171
1172* hpux10
1173
1174GDB now supports hpux10.
1175
1176*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1177
1178* New native configurations
1179
1180x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1181x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1182NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1183Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1184
1185* New targets
1186
1187A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1188HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1189CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1190PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1191WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1192
1193* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1194
1195GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1196possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1197filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1198the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1199if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1200
1201* Arguments to user-defined commands
1202
1203User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1204Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1205trivial example:
1206define adder
1207 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1208
1209To execute the command use:
1210adder 1 2 3
1211
1212Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1213Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1214use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1215
1216* New `if' and `while' commands
1217
1218This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1219commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1220expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1221execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1222terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1223`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1224if the expression is zero.
1225
1226* Fortran source language mode
1227
1228GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1229Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1230variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1231with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1232Fortran compilers.
1233
1234* Better HPUX support
1235
1236Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1237running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1238processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1239for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1240that behavior do the following before running the program:
1241
1242 adb -w a.out
1243 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1244 control-d
1245
1246This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1247To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1248
1249 adb -w a.out
1250 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1251 control-d
1252
1253You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1254the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1255external linkage.
1256
1257GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1258HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1259
1260* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1261
1262You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1263commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1264current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1265"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1266associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1267configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1268
1269* New DOS host serial code
1270
1271This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1272no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1273a PC's serial port.
1274
1275*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1276
1277* New "complete" command
1278
1279This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1280were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1281
1282* Trailing space optional in prompt
1283
1284"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1285allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1286
1287* Breakpoint hit counts
1288
1289"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1290has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1291can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1292to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1293less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1294that breakpoint.
1295
1296* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1297
1298"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1299an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1300arrays actually contain only short strings.
1301
1302* Shared library breakpoints
1303
1304In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1305breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1306
1307* Hardware watchpoints
1308
1309There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1310targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1311
55241689 1312Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1313
1314* Annotations
1315
1316Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1317and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1318
1319* Improved Irix 5 support
1320
1321GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1322
1323* Improved HPPA support
1324
1325GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1326
1327* New native configurations
1328
1329Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1330HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1331Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1332RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1333
1334* New targets
1335
1336OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1337MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1338Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1339
1340* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1341
1342There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1343This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1344
1345* Fixes
1346
1347As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1348and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1349
1350*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1351
1352* Irix 5 is now supported
1353
1354* HPPA support
1355
1356GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1357to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1358GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1359of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1360can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1361
1362
1363*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1364
1365* User visible changes:
1366
1367* Remote Debugging
1368
1369The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1370target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1371debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1372integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1373debugging info for the mips target).
1374
1375* DEC Alpha native support
1376
1377GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1378debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1379work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1380Alpha-specific notes.
1381
1382* Preliminary thread implementation
1383
1384GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1385
1386* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1387
1388This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1389to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1390for details).
1391
1392* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1393
1394This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1395mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1396call methods, ...etc.
1397
1398*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1399
1400 * User visible changes:
1401
1402Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1403supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1404other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1405somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1406
1407Filename completion now works.
1408
1409When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1410arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1411addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1412
1413All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1414vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1415should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1416your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1417to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1418
1419 * DEC alpha support
1420
1421This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1422cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1423
1424
1425*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1426
1427 * Testsuite
1428
1429This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1430The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1431via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1432
1433 * C++ demangling
1434
1435'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1436emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1437Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1438disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1439use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1440
1441 * Simulators
1442
1443GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1444So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1445Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1446
1447 * New targets supported
1448
1449H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1450H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1451SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1452Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1453IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1454
1455Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1456version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1457GO32 memory extender.
1458
1459 * New remote protocols
1460
1461MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1462
1463 * New source languages supported
1464
1465This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1466used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1467into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1468
1469
1470*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1471
1472 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1473
1474GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1475version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1476University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1477compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1478format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1479(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1480
1481Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1482
1483 * Faster and better demangling
1484
1485We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1486demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1487character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1488only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1489This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1490increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1491symbol lookups.
1492
1493`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1494from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1495compiler does not actually implement.
1496
1497 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1498
1499In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1500inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1501recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1502very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1503The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1504circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1505fix.
1506
1507The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1508release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1509
1510 * Improved configure script
1511
1512The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1513you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1514host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1515done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1516
1517We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1518version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1519`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1520The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1521only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1522We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1523
1524 * Documentation improvements
1525
1526There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1527produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1528before submitting changes.
1529
1530The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1531M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1532`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1533you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1534a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1535
1536*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1537We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1538been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1539or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1540`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1541around this problem.
1542
1543 * New features
1544
1545GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1546the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1547`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1548the target program.
1549
1550The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1551how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1552
1553 * New native hosts supported
1554
1555HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1556386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1557
1558 * New targets supported
1559
1560AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1561
1562 * New file formats supported
1563
1564BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1565HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1566
1567 * Major bug fixes
1568
1569Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1570
1571We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1572printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1573
1574We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1575for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1576release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1577
1578You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1579will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1580
1581We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1582for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1583especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1584libraries.
1585
1586The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1587information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1588command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1589any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1590when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1591
1592 * Internal improvements
1593
1594GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1595debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1596
1597GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1598Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1599symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1600contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1601shared code that handles any of them.
1602
1603 * New command line options
1604
1605We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1606
1607 * Mmalloc licensing
1608
1609The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1610General Public License.
1611
1612*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1613
1614 * Host/native/target split
1615
1616GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1617hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1618target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1619local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1620ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1621
1622The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1623GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1624is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1625code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1626any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1627built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1628handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1629
1630GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1631It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1632plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1633
1634 * New hosts supported
1635
1636HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1637386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1638386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1639
1640 * New targets supported
1641
1642Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
164368030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1644
1645 * New native hosts supported
1646
1647386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1648 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1649386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1650
1651 * New file formats supported
1652
1653BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1654supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1655format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1656
1657 * New commands
1658
1659`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1660`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1661These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1662
1663`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1664
1665You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1666scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1667prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1668executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1669
1670 * C++ improvements
1671
1672We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1673info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1674symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1675
1676Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1677
1678 * Major bug fixes
1679
1680The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1681fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1682by the compiler.
1683
1684We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1685support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1686
1687John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1688slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1689that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1690purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1691the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1692mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1693
1694Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1695about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1696completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1697we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1698
1699 * AMD 29k support
1700
1701A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1702specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1703calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1704usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1705in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1706
1707We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1708Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1709of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1710resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1711
1712 * Remote interfaces
1713
1714We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1715with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1716message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1717This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1718needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1719breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1720each instruction being stepped through.
1721
1722The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1723registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1724
1725There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1726find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1727Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1728processor with a serial port.
1729
1730 * Configuration
1731
1732Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1733`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1734supported, and what files each one uses.
1735
1736 * Library changes
1737
1738There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1739disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1740Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1741disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1742
1743The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1744Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1745can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1746grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1747
1748 * Documentation
1749
1750The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1751reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1752as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1753encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1754system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1755bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1756
1757And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1758
1759
1760*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1761
1762 * Better support for C++ function names
1763
1764GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1765names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1766(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1767single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1768Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1769
1770GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1771the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1772You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1773lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1774for the list of formats.
1775
1776 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1777
1778Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1779C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1780directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1781can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1782usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1783about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1784this problem.)
1785
1786 * New 'maintenance' command
1787
1788All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1789the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1790can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1791
1792 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1793 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1794 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1795 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1796 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1797 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1798
1799The following commands are new:
1800
1801 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1802 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1803 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1804
1805 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1806
1807We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1808(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1809be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1810read after argv processing.
1811
1812 * New hosts supported
1813
1814Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1815
55241689 1816GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1817
1818We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1819is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1820for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1821masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1822fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1823It costs extra.
1824
1825 * New targets supported
1826
1827Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1828
1829 * More smarts about finding #include files
1830
1831GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1832all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1833greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1834especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1835the one that contains your sources.
1836
1837We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1838breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1839try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1840
1841 * Interesting infernals change
1842
1843GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1844section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1845target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1846stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1847
1848 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1849
1850There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1851 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1852 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1853
1854See the ChangeLog for details.
1855
1856*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1857
1858 * New machines supported (host and target)
1859
1860IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1861
1862SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1863
1864 * New malloc package
1865
1866GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1867Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1868capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1869This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1870pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1871more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1872
1873 * info proc
1874
1875The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1876'help info proc' for details.
1877
1878 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1879
1880The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1881Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1882possible.
1883
1884 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1885
1886Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1887support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1888conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1889environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1890that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1891in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1892
1893 * Cross byte order fixes
1894
1895Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1896targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1897
1898 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1899
1900If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1901system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1902`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1903program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1904called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1905Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1906and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1907the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1908option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1909starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1910
1911You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1912the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1913information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1914slower, but makes future operations faster.
1915
1916The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1917build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1918A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1919use is:
1920
1921 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1922
1923The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1924It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1925shared across multiple host platforms.
1926
1927 * longjmp() handling
1928
1929GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1930siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1931all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1932platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1933
1934 * Solaris 2.0
1935
1936Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1937this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1938reading symbols.
1939
1940 * Bug fixes
1941
1942As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1943People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1944crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1945
1946*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1947
1948 * New machines supported (host and target)
1949
1950SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1951 (except core files)
1952BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1953Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1954
1955 * New machines supported (target)
1956
1957AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1958
1959 * C++ support
1960
1961GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1962The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1963per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1964
1965GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1966`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1967extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1968good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1969will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1970released.
1971
1972 * New features for SVR4
1973
1974GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1975shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1976only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1977
1978The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1979on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1980it prints the address mappings of the process.
1981
1982If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1983bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1984
1985 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1986
1987Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1988now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1989skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1990make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1991same code linked statically.
1992
1993 * New Getopt
1994
1995GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1996version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1997continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1998Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1999added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2000future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2001
2002 * Bugs fixed
2003
2004The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2005Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2006See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2007
2008
2009*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2010
2011 * New machines supported (host and target)
2012
2013Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2014NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2015Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2016
2017 * Almost SCO Unix support
2018
2019We had hoped to support:
2020SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2021(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2022that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2023about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2024
2025 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2026
2027GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2028debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2029is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2030send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2031reqired (if any).
2032
2033 * New Readline
2034
2035GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2036is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2037required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2038
2039 * Bugs fixed
2040
2041The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2042Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2043See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2044
2045 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2046
2047GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2048supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2049symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2050
2051Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2052mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2053debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2054mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2055version 2.
2056
2057Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2058really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2059line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2060variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2061situation somewhat.
2062
2063When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2064However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2065methods.
2066
2067We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2068DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2069encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2070
2071
2072*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2073
2074 * Improved configuration
2075
2076Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2077Porting BFD is simpler.
2078
2079 * Stepping improved
2080
2081The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2082of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2083in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2084function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2085
2086 * Bug fixing
2087
2088Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2089
2090 * New host supported (not target)
2091
2092Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2093
2094
2095*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2096
2097 * Multiple source language support
2098
2099GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2100It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2101and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2102language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2103You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2104`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2105
2106 * GDB and Modula-2
2107
2108GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2109currently under development at the State University of New York at
2110Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2111continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2112
2113Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2114debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2115symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2116
2117There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2118in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2119
2120 * set write on/off
2121
2122GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2123a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2124the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2125by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2126effect immediately.
2127
2128 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2129
2130When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2131shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2132The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2133examining core files.
2134
2135 * set listsize
2136
2137You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2138The default is 10.
2139
2140 * New machines supported (host and target)
2141
2142SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2143Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2144Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2145
2146 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2147
2148IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2149
2150 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2151
2152AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2153AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2154Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2155
2156 * New remote interfaces
2157
2158AMD 29000 Adapt
2159AMD 29000 Minimon
2160
2161
2162*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2163
2164 * New Facilities
2165
2166Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2167
2168Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2169target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2170is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2171remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2172remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2173also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2174using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2175stub on the target system.
2176
2177New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2178
2179GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2180library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2181object file types such as a.out and coff.
2182
2183There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2184refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2185
2186
2187 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2188
2189All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2190by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2191
2192For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2193``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2194Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2195
2196What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2197print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2198will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2199all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2200
2201confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2202 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2203 it is already running. Default is ON.
2204
2205editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2206 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2207 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2208 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2209 Default is ON.
2210
2211history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2212 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2213 or the value of the environment variable
2214 GDBHISTFILE.
2215
2216history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2217 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2218 HISTSIZE.
2219
2220history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2221 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2222 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2223
2224history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2225 history expansion will be performed on
2226 command line input. The default is OFF.
2227
2228radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2229 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2230 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2231
2232height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2233 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2234 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2235 variable TERM.
2236
2237width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2238 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2239 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2240 variable TERM.
2241
2242Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2243``set width'' instead.
2244
2245print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2246 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2247 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2248 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2249
2250print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2251 is OFF.
2252
2253print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2254 "raw" form if off.
2255
2256print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2257 like instructions.
2258
2259print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2260
2261
2262 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2263
2264The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2265new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2266are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2267window.
2268
2269
2270 * Support for Shared Libraries
2271
2272GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2273Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2274before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2275happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2276At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2277from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2278shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2279It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2280
2281sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2282 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2283 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2284
2285info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2286
2287
2288 * Watchpoints
2289
2290A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2291expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2292tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2293quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2294problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2295more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2296
2297watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2298
2299info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2300
2301delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2302disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2303enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2304
2305
2306 * C++ multiple inheritance
2307
2308When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2309for C++ programs.
2310
2311 * C++ exception handling
2312
2313Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2314ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2315the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2316handler's context).
2317
2318catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2319 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2320 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2321
2322info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2323 current stack frame.
2324
2325
2326 * Minor command changes
2327
2328The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2329command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2330is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2331
2332The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2333at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2334frames without printing.
2335
2336 * New directory command
2337
2338'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2339The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2340about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2341with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2342find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2343
2344 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2345
2346For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2347for more details.
2348
2349GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2350two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2351Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2352where the program that you are debugging will run.
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