2003-02-04 Andrew Cagney <ac131313@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 5.3:
5
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6* d10v `regs' command deprecated
7
8The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
9registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
10
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11* Profiling support
12
13A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
14be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
15session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
16"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
17data, for more informative profiling results.
18
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19* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
20
21The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
22option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
23"mi1", can be enabled by sepcifying the option "-i=mi1".
24
25Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
26removed.
27
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28Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
29Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
30Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
31 in a subsequent -var-update.
32
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33* OBSOLETE configurations and files
34
35Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
36been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
37configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
38permanently REMOVED.
39
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40H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
41
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42* REMOVED configurations and files
43
44V850EA ISA
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45Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
46IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
47i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
48i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
49i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
50HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
51 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
52 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
53Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
54Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
55Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
56OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
57I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 58
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59* MIPS $fp behavior changed
60
61The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
62the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
63context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
64address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
65The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
66
299ffc64 67*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 68
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69* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
70
71When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
72`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
73in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
74library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
75shared libs like mad''.
76
b9d14705 77* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 78
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79Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
80the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
81arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
82powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 83
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84* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
85
86GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
87and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
88they expand.
89
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90The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
91invocations in expression, and shows the result.
92
93The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
94macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
95
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96Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
97information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
98your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
99information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
100
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101* Multi-arched targets.
102
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103DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
104DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 105NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 106National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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107Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
108Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 109
cd9bfe15 110* New targets.
e33ce519 111
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112Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
113
e33ce519 114
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115* New native configurations
116
117Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 118SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 119MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 120UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 121
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122* OBSOLETE configurations and files
123
124Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
125been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
126configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
127permanently REMOVED.
128
92eb23c5 129Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 130OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 131IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 132Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 133Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 134Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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135i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
136i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
137i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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138HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
139 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
140 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 141I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 142
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143* OBSOLETE languages
144
145CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
146
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147* REMOVED configurations and files
148
149AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
150A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
151AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
152AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
153AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
154
155testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
156
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157* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
158
159This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
160commands. The default is 1024.
161
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162* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
163
164Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
165
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166* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
167
168These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
169to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
170from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 171
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172* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
173
174The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
175including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
176of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
177
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178*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
179
180* New targets.
181
182Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
183
184* Bug fixes
185
186gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
187mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
188Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
189
190gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
191dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
192Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
193
194Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
195Surprisingly enough, it works now.
196By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
197
198i386 hardware watchpoint support:
199avoid misses on second run for some targets.
200By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
201
37057839 202*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 203
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204* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
205
206This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
207really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
208In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
209target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
210This can be a significant performance improvement on some
211(notably embedded) targets.
212
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213* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
214
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215This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
216process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
217GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
218hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 219
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220* New command line option
221
222GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
223
224* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
225
226There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
227command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
228a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
229be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
230open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
231issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
232a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
233it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
234GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
235is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
236
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237* Changes in ARM configurations.
238
239Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
240configuration is fully multi-arch.
241
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242* New native configurations
243
fe419ffc 244ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 245x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 246AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 247Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 248
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249* New targets
250
251Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
252
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253* OBSOLETE configurations and files
254
255Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
256been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
257configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
258permanently REMOVED.
259
260AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
261A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
262AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
263AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
264AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
265
b4ceaee6 266testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 267
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268* REMOVED configurations and files
269
270TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 271WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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272PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
273PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
274PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 275Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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276Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
277 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 278SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 279Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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280Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
281ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 282Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 283
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284* Changes to command line processing
285
286The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
287for the inferior from gdb's command line.
288
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289* Changes to key bindings
290
291There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
292
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293*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
294
295Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
296
297Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
298corrupted.
299
300Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
301
302Numerous documentation fixes.
303
304Numerous testsuite fixes.
305
34f47bc4 306*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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307
308* New native configurations
309
310Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
311x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 312MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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313MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
314ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 315s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 316
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317* New targets
318
def90278 319Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 320CRIS cris-axis
55241689 321UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 322
17e78a56 323* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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324
325x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 326Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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327Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
328 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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329TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
330WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 331Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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332PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
333PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
334PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 335SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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336Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
337ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 338Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 339
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340stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
341kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
342
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343Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
344been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
345configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
346permanently REMOVED.
347
a196c81c 348* REMOVED configurations and files
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349
350Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
351Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
352Pyramid pyramid-*-*
353ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
354Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 355ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 356
6d6b80e5 357* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 358
6d6b80e5 359GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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360sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
361present.
362
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363* Other news:
364
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365* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
366
367* The MI enabled by default.
368
369The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
370revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
371engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
372using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
373which is now deprecated.
374
375* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
376
377GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
378main features are supported:
379
380 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
381
382 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
383 extension;
384
385 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
386
387 - a Pascal expression parser.
388
389However, some important features are not yet supported.
390
391 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
392
393 - there are some problems with boolean types;
394
395 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
396 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
397
398 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
399
400 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
401
402* Changes in completion.
403
404Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
405to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
406users expect at the shell prompt.
407
408Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
409`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
410program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
411files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
412be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
413considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
414name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
415
416`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
417
418* New platform-independent commands:
419
420It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
421hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
422documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
423
424* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
425
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426Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
427revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
428many threads as your system allows you to have.
429
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430Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
431
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432Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
433multi-threaded programs though.
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434
435* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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436
437Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
438
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439GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
440debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
441supported.)
442
443* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
444
445Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
446breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
447implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
448put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
449and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
450registers.
451
452The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
453debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
454watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
455
456* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
457
458New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
459the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
460
461New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
462display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
463IDT.
464
465New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
466from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
467New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
468a given linear address.
469
470GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
471program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
472which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
473
474DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
475
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476It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
477
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478* Changes in documentation.
479
480All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
481Documentation License.
482
483Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
484manual.
485
486TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
487
488Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
489manual.
490
491The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
492documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
493hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
494
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495* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
496
497The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
498``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
499contents of this file.
500
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501* gdba.el deleted
502
503GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 504
9debab2f 505*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 506
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507* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
508
509Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
510programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
511displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
512greater level of detail.
513
514* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
515
516It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
517bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
518on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
519written.
520
521* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
522
523The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
524necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
525machines ``out of the box''.
526
527The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
528possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
529signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
530would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
531interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
532
533It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
534standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
535even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
536and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
537terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
538
539The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
540enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
541also works.
542
543DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
544GDB.
545
546It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
547directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
548times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
549breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
550
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551* New native configurations
552
553ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 554PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 555
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556* New targets
557
96baa820 558Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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559x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
560PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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561TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
562
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563* OBSOLETE configurations
564
565Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
566Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 567Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 568ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 569Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 570
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571Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
572but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
573these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
574be permanently REMOVED.
575
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576* Gould support removed
577
578Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
579
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580* New features for SVR4
581
582On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
583without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
584load symbols from the running process's executable file.
585
586* Many C++ enhancements
587
588C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
589in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
590
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591* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
592
593A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
594sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
595with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
596``|<program> <args>'' vis:
597
598 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
599 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
600
43e526b9
JM
601* MIPS 64 remote protocol
602
603A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
604expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
605instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
606
607The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
608added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
609
96baa820
JM
610* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
611
612The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
613``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
614include ``set remote P-packet''.
615
11cf8741
JM
616* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
617
618The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
619accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
620``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
621
7876dd43
DB
622* ``apropos'' command added.
623
624The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
625documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
626try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
627
bc9e5bbf
AC
628* New MI interface
629
630A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
631interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
632process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
633"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
634enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
635
636 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
637
c906108c
SS
638*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
639
640* New native configurations
641
642HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
643HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 644M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
645
646* New targets
647
648Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
649Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
650Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
651
652* OBSOLETE configurations
653
654Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
655
656Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
657but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
658these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
659be permanently REMOVED.
660
661* ANSI/ISO C
662
663As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
664buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
665containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
666use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
667available. If this is not true, please report the affected
668configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
669information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
670already.
671
672* Readline 2.2
673
674GDB now uses readline 2.2.
675
676* set extension-language
677
678You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
679languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
680you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
681 set extension-language .c c++
682The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
683and their associated languages.
684
685* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
686
687When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
688you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
689PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
690
691 set processor NAME
692
693sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
694following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
695
696 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
697 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
698 403 IBM PowerPC 403
699 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
700 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
701 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
702 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
703 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
704 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
705 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
706 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
707
708At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
709special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
710registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
711only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
712
713* HP-UX support
714
715Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
716more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
717library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
718support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
719for xdb and dbx commands.
720
721* Catchpoints
722
723HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
724generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
725to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
726
727This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
728argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
729output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
730
731* Debugging across forks
732
733On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
734in the inferior.
735
736* TUI
737
738HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
739it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
740configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
741
742* GDB remote protocol additions
743
744A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
745Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
746fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
747allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
748
749For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
750full 64-bit address. The command
751
752 set remoteaddresssize 32
753
754can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
755the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
756will be discarded.
757
758In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
759command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
760
761 maint packet heythere
762
763sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
764disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
765time.
766
767The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
768target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
769downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
770
771* Tracing can collect general expressions
772
773You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
774further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
775doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
776
777* mask-address variable for Mips
778
779For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
780a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
781of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
782
783* Higher serial baud rates
784
785GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
786230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
787to achieve all of these rates.)
788
789* i960 simulator
790
791The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
792builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
793
794
795*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
796
797* New native configurations
798
799Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
800Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
801Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
802PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
803PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
804Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
805Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
806
807* New targets
808
809Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
810Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
811Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
812Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
813MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
814MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
815MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
816Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
817Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
818Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
819NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
820
821* New debugging protocols
822
823ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
824M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
825DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
826PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
827PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
828Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
829
830* DWARF 2
831
832All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
833format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
834information.
835
836* Java frontend
837
838GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
839only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
840
841* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
842
843For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
844loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
845locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
846
847* Live range splitting
848
849GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
850range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
851more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
852
853* Hurd support
854
855GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
856updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
857
858* ARM Thumb support
859
860GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
861instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
862instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
863accordingly.
864
865* MIPS16 support
866
867GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
868instruction set.
869
870* Overlay support
871
872GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
873linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
874will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
875control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
876additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
877in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
878
879* info symbol
880
881The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
882the symbol at the specified address.
883
884* Trace support
885
886The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
887asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
888extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
889includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
890file tracepoint.c for more details.
891
892* MIPS simulator
893
894Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
895by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
896of most MIPS variants.
897
898* Sparc simulator
899
900Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
901by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
902Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
903
904* set architecture
905
906For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
907basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
908architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
909the possible architectures.
910
911*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
912
913* New native configurations
914
915Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
916M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
917PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
918PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
919PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
920RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
921
922* New targets
923
924ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
925I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
926MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
927MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
928PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
929Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
930Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
931
932* PowerPC simulator
933
934The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
935contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
936PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
937basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
938performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
939
940* Solaris 2.5
941
942GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
943
944* Windows 95/NT native
945
946GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
947To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
948which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
949Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
950ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
951
952* dont-repeat command
953
954If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
955command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
956useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
957extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
958
959* Send break instead of ^C
960
961The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
962rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
963GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
964
965* Remote protocol timeout
966
967The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
968that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
969to read from the target. The default value is 2.
970
971* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
972
973By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
974loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
975stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
976when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
977in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
978
979Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
980/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
981automatically on hpux10.
982
983* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
984
985Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
986
987* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
988
989When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
990may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
991the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
992every character. The default value is 1050.
993
994* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
995
996If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
997a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
998replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
999details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1000remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1001to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1002
1003* Speedups for remote debugging
1004
1005GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1006the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1007and more efficient S-record downloading.
1008
1009* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1010
1011GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1012Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1013
1014*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1015
1016* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1017
1018The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1019can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1020
1021* Remote targets use caching
1022
1023Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1024remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1025it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1026debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1027off' turns the the data cache off.
1028
1029* Remote targets may have threads
1030
1031The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1032in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1033gdb/remote.c for details.
1034
1035* NetROM support
1036
1037If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1038support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1039acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1040write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1041support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1042another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1043sequence is something like
1044
1045 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1046 load <prog>
1047 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1048
1049* Macintosh host
1050
1051GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1052may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1053it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1054available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1055device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1056directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1057scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1058mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1059
1060* Autoconf
1061
1062GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1063but does simplify configuration and building.
1064
1065* hpux10
1066
1067GDB now supports hpux10.
1068
1069*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1070
1071* New native configurations
1072
1073x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1074x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1075NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1076Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1077
1078* New targets
1079
1080A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1081HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1082CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1083PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1084WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1085
1086* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1087
1088GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1089possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1090filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1091the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1092if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1093
1094* Arguments to user-defined commands
1095
1096User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1097Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1098trivial example:
1099define adder
1100 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1101
1102To execute the command use:
1103adder 1 2 3
1104
1105Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1106Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1107use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1108
1109* New `if' and `while' commands
1110
1111This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1112commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1113expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1114execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1115terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1116`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1117if the expression is zero.
1118
1119* Fortran source language mode
1120
1121GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1122Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1123variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1124with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1125Fortran compilers.
1126
1127* Better HPUX support
1128
1129Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1130running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1131processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1132for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1133that behavior do the following before running the program:
1134
1135 adb -w a.out
1136 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1137 control-d
1138
1139This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1140To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1141
1142 adb -w a.out
1143 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1144 control-d
1145
1146You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1147the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1148external linkage.
1149
1150GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1151HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1152
1153* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1154
1155You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1156commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1157current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1158"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1159associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1160configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1161
1162* New DOS host serial code
1163
1164This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1165no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1166a PC's serial port.
1167
1168*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1169
1170* New "complete" command
1171
1172This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1173were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1174
1175* Trailing space optional in prompt
1176
1177"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1178allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1179
1180* Breakpoint hit counts
1181
1182"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1183has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1184can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1185to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1186less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1187that breakpoint.
1188
1189* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1190
1191"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1192an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1193arrays actually contain only short strings.
1194
1195* Shared library breakpoints
1196
1197In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1198breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1199
1200* Hardware watchpoints
1201
1202There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1203targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1204
55241689 1205Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1206
1207* Annotations
1208
1209Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1210and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1211
1212* Improved Irix 5 support
1213
1214GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1215
1216* Improved HPPA support
1217
1218GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1219
1220* New native configurations
1221
1222Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1223HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1224Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1225RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1226
1227* New targets
1228
1229OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1230MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1231Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1232
1233* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1234
1235There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1236This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1237
1238* Fixes
1239
1240As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1241and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1242
1243*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1244
1245* Irix 5 is now supported
1246
1247* HPPA support
1248
1249GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1250to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1251GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1252of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1253can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1254
1255
1256*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1257
1258* User visible changes:
1259
1260* Remote Debugging
1261
1262The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1263target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1264debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1265integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1266debugging info for the mips target).
1267
1268* DEC Alpha native support
1269
1270GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1271debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1272work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1273Alpha-specific notes.
1274
1275* Preliminary thread implementation
1276
1277GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1278
1279* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1280
1281This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1282to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1283for details).
1284
1285* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1286
1287This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1288mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1289call methods, ...etc.
1290
1291*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1292
1293 * User visible changes:
1294
1295Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1296supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1297other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1298somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1299
1300Filename completion now works.
1301
1302When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1303arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1304addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1305
1306All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1307vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1308should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1309your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1310to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1311
1312 * DEC alpha support
1313
1314This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1315cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1316
1317
1318*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1319
1320 * Testsuite
1321
1322This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1323The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1324via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1325
1326 * C++ demangling
1327
1328'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1329emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1330Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1331disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1332use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1333
1334 * Simulators
1335
1336GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1337So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1338Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1339
1340 * New targets supported
1341
1342H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1343H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1344SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1345Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1346IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1347
1348Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1349version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1350GO32 memory extender.
1351
1352 * New remote protocols
1353
1354MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1355
1356 * New source languages supported
1357
1358This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1359used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1360into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1361
1362
1363*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1364
1365 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1366
1367GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1368version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1369University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1370compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1371format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1372(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1373
1374Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1375
1376 * Faster and better demangling
1377
1378We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1379demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1380character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1381only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1382This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1383increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1384symbol lookups.
1385
1386`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1387from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1388compiler does not actually implement.
1389
1390 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1391
1392In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1393inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1394recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1395very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1396The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1397circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1398fix.
1399
1400The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1401release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1402
1403 * Improved configure script
1404
1405The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1406you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1407host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1408done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1409
1410We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1411version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1412`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1413The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1414only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1415We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1416
1417 * Documentation improvements
1418
1419There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1420produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1421before submitting changes.
1422
1423The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1424M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1425`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1426you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1427a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1428
1429*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1430We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1431been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1432or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1433`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1434around this problem.
1435
1436 * New features
1437
1438GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1439the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1440`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1441the target program.
1442
1443The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1444how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1445
1446 * New native hosts supported
1447
1448HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1449386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1450
1451 * New targets supported
1452
1453AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1454
1455 * New file formats supported
1456
1457BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1458HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1459
1460 * Major bug fixes
1461
1462Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1463
1464We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1465printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1466
1467We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1468for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1469release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1470
1471You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1472will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1473
1474We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1475for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1476especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1477libraries.
1478
1479The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1480information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1481command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1482any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1483when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1484
1485 * Internal improvements
1486
1487GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1488debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1489
1490GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1491Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1492symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1493contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1494shared code that handles any of them.
1495
1496 * New command line options
1497
1498We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1499
1500 * Mmalloc licensing
1501
1502The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1503General Public License.
1504
1505*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1506
1507 * Host/native/target split
1508
1509GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1510hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1511target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1512local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1513ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1514
1515The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1516GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1517is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1518code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1519any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1520built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1521handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1522
1523GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1524It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1525plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1526
1527 * New hosts supported
1528
1529HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1530386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1531386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1532
1533 * New targets supported
1534
1535Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
153668030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1537
1538 * New native hosts supported
1539
1540386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1541 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1542386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1543
1544 * New file formats supported
1545
1546BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1547supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1548format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1549
1550 * New commands
1551
1552`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1553`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1554These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1555
1556`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1557
1558You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1559scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1560prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1561executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1562
1563 * C++ improvements
1564
1565We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1566info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1567symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1568
1569Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1570
1571 * Major bug fixes
1572
1573The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1574fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1575by the compiler.
1576
1577We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1578support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1579
1580John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1581slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1582that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1583purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1584the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1585mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1586
1587Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1588about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1589completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1590we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1591
1592 * AMD 29k support
1593
1594A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1595specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1596calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1597usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1598in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1599
1600We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1601Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1602of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1603resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1604
1605 * Remote interfaces
1606
1607We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1608with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1609message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1610This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1611needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1612breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1613each instruction being stepped through.
1614
1615The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1616registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1617
1618There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1619find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1620Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1621processor with a serial port.
1622
1623 * Configuration
1624
1625Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1626`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1627supported, and what files each one uses.
1628
1629 * Library changes
1630
1631There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1632disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1633Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1634disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1635
1636The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1637Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1638can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1639grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1640
1641 * Documentation
1642
1643The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1644reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1645as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1646encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1647system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1648bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1649
1650And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1651
1652
1653*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1654
1655 * Better support for C++ function names
1656
1657GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1658names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1659(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1660single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1661Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1662
1663GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1664the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1665You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1666lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1667for the list of formats.
1668
1669 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1670
1671Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1672C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1673directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1674can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1675usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1676about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1677this problem.)
1678
1679 * New 'maintenance' command
1680
1681All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1682the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1683can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1684
1685 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1686 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1687 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1688 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1689 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1690 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1691
1692The following commands are new:
1693
1694 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1695 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1696 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1697
1698 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1699
1700We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1701(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1702be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1703read after argv processing.
1704
1705 * New hosts supported
1706
1707Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1708
55241689 1709GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1710
1711We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1712is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1713for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1714masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1715fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1716It costs extra.
1717
1718 * New targets supported
1719
1720Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1721
1722 * More smarts about finding #include files
1723
1724GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1725all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1726greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1727especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1728the one that contains your sources.
1729
1730We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1731breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1732try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1733
1734 * Interesting infernals change
1735
1736GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1737section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1738target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1739stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1740
1741 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1742
1743There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1744 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1745 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1746
1747See the ChangeLog for details.
1748
1749*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1750
1751 * New machines supported (host and target)
1752
1753IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1754
1755SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1756
1757 * New malloc package
1758
1759GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1760Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1761capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1762This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1763pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1764more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1765
1766 * info proc
1767
1768The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1769'help info proc' for details.
1770
1771 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1772
1773The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1774Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1775possible.
1776
1777 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1778
1779Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1780support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1781conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1782environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1783that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1784in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1785
1786 * Cross byte order fixes
1787
1788Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1789targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1790
1791 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1792
1793If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1794system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1795`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1796program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1797called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1798Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1799and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1800the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1801option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1802starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1803
1804You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1805the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1806information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1807slower, but makes future operations faster.
1808
1809The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1810build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1811A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1812use is:
1813
1814 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1815
1816The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1817It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1818shared across multiple host platforms.
1819
1820 * longjmp() handling
1821
1822GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1823siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1824all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1825platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1826
1827 * Solaris 2.0
1828
1829Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1830this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1831reading symbols.
1832
1833 * Bug fixes
1834
1835As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1836People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1837crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1838
1839*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1840
1841 * New machines supported (host and target)
1842
1843SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1844 (except core files)
1845BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1846Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1847
1848 * New machines supported (target)
1849
1850AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1851
1852 * C++ support
1853
1854GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1855The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1856per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1857
1858GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1859`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1860extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1861good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1862will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1863released.
1864
1865 * New features for SVR4
1866
1867GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1868shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1869only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1870
1871The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1872on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1873it prints the address mappings of the process.
1874
1875If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1876bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1877
1878 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1879
1880Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1881now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1882skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1883make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1884same code linked statically.
1885
1886 * New Getopt
1887
1888GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1889version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1890continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1891Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1892added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1893future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1894
1895 * Bugs fixed
1896
1897The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1898Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1899See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1900
1901
1902*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1903
1904 * New machines supported (host and target)
1905
1906Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1907NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1908Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1909
1910 * Almost SCO Unix support
1911
1912We had hoped to support:
1913SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1914(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1915that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1916about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1917
1918 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1919
1920GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1921debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1922is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1923send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1924reqired (if any).
1925
1926 * New Readline
1927
1928GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1929is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1930required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1931
1932 * Bugs fixed
1933
1934The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1935Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1936See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1937
1938 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1939
1940GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1941supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1942symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1943
1944Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1945mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1946debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1947mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1948version 2.
1949
1950Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1951really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1952line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1953variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1954situation somewhat.
1955
1956When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1957However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1958methods.
1959
1960We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1961DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1962encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1963
1964
1965*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1966
1967 * Improved configuration
1968
1969Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1970Porting BFD is simpler.
1971
1972 * Stepping improved
1973
1974The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1975of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1976in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1977function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1978
1979 * Bug fixing
1980
1981Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1982
1983 * New host supported (not target)
1984
1985Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1986
1987
1988*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1989
1990 * Multiple source language support
1991
1992GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1993It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1994and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1995language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1996You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1997`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1998
1999 * GDB and Modula-2
2000
2001GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2002currently under development at the State University of New York at
2003Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2004continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2005
2006Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2007debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2008symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2009
2010There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2011in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2012
2013 * set write on/off
2014
2015GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2016a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2017the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2018by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2019effect immediately.
2020
2021 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2022
2023When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2024shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2025The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2026examining core files.
2027
2028 * set listsize
2029
2030You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2031The default is 10.
2032
2033 * New machines supported (host and target)
2034
2035SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2036Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2037Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2038
2039 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2040
2041IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2042
2043 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2044
2045AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2046AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2047Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2048
2049 * New remote interfaces
2050
2051AMD 29000 Adapt
2052AMD 29000 Minimon
2053
2054
2055*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2056
2057 * New Facilities
2058
2059Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2060
2061Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2062target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2063is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2064remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2065remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2066also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2067using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2068stub on the target system.
2069
2070New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2071
2072GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2073library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2074object file types such as a.out and coff.
2075
2076There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2077refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2078
2079
2080 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2081
2082All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2083by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2084
2085For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2086``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2087Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2088
2089What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2090print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2091will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2092all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2093
2094confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2095 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2096 it is already running. Default is ON.
2097
2098editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2099 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2100 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2101 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2102 Default is ON.
2103
2104history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2105 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2106 or the value of the environment variable
2107 GDBHISTFILE.
2108
2109history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2110 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2111 HISTSIZE.
2112
2113history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2114 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2115 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2116
2117history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2118 history expansion will be performed on
2119 command line input. The default is OFF.
2120
2121radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2122 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2123 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2124
2125height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2126 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2127 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2128 variable TERM.
2129
2130width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2131 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2132 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2133 variable TERM.
2134
2135Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2136``set width'' instead.
2137
2138print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2139 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2140 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2141 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2142
2143print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2144 is OFF.
2145
2146print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2147 "raw" form if off.
2148
2149print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2150 like instructions.
2151
2152print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2153
2154
2155 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2156
2157The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2158new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2159are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2160window.
2161
2162
2163 * Support for Shared Libraries
2164
2165GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2166Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2167before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2168happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2169At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2170from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2171shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2172It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2173
2174sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2175 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2176 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2177
2178info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2179
2180
2181 * Watchpoints
2182
2183A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2184expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2185tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2186quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2187problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2188more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2189
2190watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2191
2192info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2193
2194delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2195disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2196enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2197
2198
2199 * C++ multiple inheritance
2200
2201When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2202for C++ programs.
2203
2204 * C++ exception handling
2205
2206Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2207ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2208the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2209handler's context).
2210
2211catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2212 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2213 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2214
2215info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2216 current stack frame.
2217
2218
2219 * Minor command changes
2220
2221The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2222command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2223is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2224
2225The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2226at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2227frames without printing.
2228
2229 * New directory command
2230
2231'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2232The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2233about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2234with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2235find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2236
2237 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2238
2239For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2240for more details.
2241
2242GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2243two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2244Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2245where the program that you are debugging will run.
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