| 1 | What has changed in GDB? |
| 2 | (Organized release by release) |
| 3 | |
| 4 | *** Changes since GDB 6.5 |
| 5 | |
| 6 | * REMOVED features |
| 7 | |
| 8 | The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp"). |
| 9 | |
| 10 | *** Changes in GDB 6.5 |
| 11 | |
| 12 | * New targets |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf |
| 17 | |
| 18 | * New commands |
| 19 | |
| 20 | init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but |
| 21 | only if it doesn't already have a value. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux: |
| 24 | |
| 25 | checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | restart <n> Return the program state to a |
| 28 | previously saved state. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly |
| 35 | forked process, or to keep debugging it. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | info forks List forks of the user program that |
| 38 | are available to be debugged. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several |
| 41 | forks of the user program that are |
| 42 | available to be debugged. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks |
| 45 | that are available to be debugged (and |
| 46 | kill the forked process). |
| 47 | |
| 48 | detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks |
| 49 | that are available to be debugged (and |
| 50 | allow the process to continue). |
| 51 | |
| 52 | * New architecture |
| 53 | |
| 54 | Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf |
| 55 | |
| 56 | * Improved Windows host support |
| 57 | |
| 58 | GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including |
| 59 | native console support, and remote communications using either |
| 60 | network sockets or serial ports. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | * Improved Modula-2 language support |
| 63 | |
| 64 | GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes: |
| 65 | basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types, |
| 66 | pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly |
| 67 | printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also |
| 68 | written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using |
| 69 | GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | * REMOVED features |
| 72 | |
| 73 | The ARM rdi-share module. |
| 74 | |
| 75 | The Netware NLM debug server. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | *** Changes in GDB 6.4 |
| 78 | |
| 79 | * New native configurations |
| 80 | |
| 81 | OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd* |
| 82 | OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd* |
| 83 | |
| 84 | * New targets |
| 85 | |
| 86 | Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf |
| 87 | |
| 88 | * New command line options |
| 89 | |
| 90 | --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent. |
| 91 | --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value |
| 92 | the child (debugged) program exited with. |
| 93 | --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND |
| 94 | Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be |
| 95 | specified multiple times and in conjunction |
| 96 | with the --command (-x) option. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | * Deprecated commands removed |
| 99 | |
| 100 | The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been |
| 101 | removed: |
| 102 | |
| 103 | Command Replacement |
| 104 | set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler |
| 105 | othernames set arm disassembler |
| 106 | set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote |
| 107 | set|show archdebug set|show debug arch |
| 108 | set|show eventdebug set|show debug event |
| 109 | regs info registers |
| 110 | |
| 111 | * New BSD user-level threads support |
| 112 | |
| 113 | It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads |
| 114 | library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target) |
| 115 | configurations are: |
| 116 | |
| 117 | FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd* |
| 118 | FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd* |
| 119 | OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd* |
| 120 | |
| 121 | Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x |
| 122 | are not yet supported. |
| 123 | |
| 124 | * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added |
| 125 | (Work in progress). mn10300-elf. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | * REMOVED configurations and files |
| 128 | |
| 129 | VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks |
| 130 | Motorola MCORE mcore-*-* |
| 131 | National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-* |
| 132 | |
| 133 | * New "set print array-indexes" command |
| 134 | |
| 135 | After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element |
| 136 | when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous |
| 137 | behavior. |
| 138 | |
| 139 | * VAX floating point support |
| 140 | |
| 141 | GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats. |
| 142 | |
| 143 | * User-defined command support |
| 144 | |
| 145 | In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible |
| 146 | to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the |
| 147 | section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information. |
| 148 | |
| 149 | *** Changes in GDB 6.3: |
| 150 | |
| 151 | * New command line option |
| 152 | |
| 153 | GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote |
| 154 | debugging. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups |
| 157 | |
| 158 | GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug |
| 159 | information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced |
| 160 | by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some |
| 161 | proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later |
| 162 | to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups. |
| 163 | |
| 164 | * Internationalization |
| 165 | |
| 166 | When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with |
| 167 | internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is |
| 168 | continued, we're looking forward to our first translation. |
| 169 | |
| 170 | * Ada |
| 171 | |
| 172 | Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT |
| 173 | implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated |
| 174 | into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation. |
| 175 | |
| 176 | * New native configurations |
| 177 | |
| 178 | GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu |
| 179 | |
| 180 | * Remote 'p' packet |
| 181 | |
| 182 | GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This |
| 183 | packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior. |
| 184 | |
| 185 | * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module |
| 186 | |
| 187 | GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten. |
| 188 | The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new |
| 189 | features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit |
| 190 | i386 application). |
| 191 | |
| 192 | GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[] |
| 193 | compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to |
| 194 | continue to work. This change directly impacts the following |
| 195 | configurations: |
| 196 | |
| 197 | hppa-*-hpux |
| 198 | ia64-*-aix |
| 199 | mips-*-irix* |
| 200 | *-*-lynx |
| 201 | mips-*-linux-gnu |
| 202 | sds protocol |
| 203 | xdr protocol |
| 204 | powerpc bdm protocol |
| 205 | |
| 206 | Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be |
| 207 | made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5. |
| 208 | |
| 209 | * OBSOLETE configurations and files |
| 210 | |
| 211 | Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have |
| 212 | been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these |
| 213 | configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources |
| 214 | permanently REMOVED. |
| 215 | |
| 216 | h8300-*-* |
| 217 | mcore-*-* |
| 218 | mn10300-*-* |
| 219 | ns32k-*-* |
| 220 | sh64-*-* |
| 221 | v850-*-* |
| 222 | |
| 223 | *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1: |
| 224 | |
| 225 | * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning |
| 226 | |
| 227 | When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about |
| 228 | heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has |
| 229 | been fixed. |
| 230 | |
| 231 | * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB |
| 232 | |
| 233 | When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation |
| 234 | fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine |
| 235 | IRIX long double values). |
| 236 | |
| 237 | * VAX and "next" |
| 238 | |
| 239 | A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next" |
| 240 | command. This problem has been fixed. |
| 241 | |
| 242 | *** Changes in GDB 6.2: |
| 243 | |
| 244 | * Fix for ``many threads'' |
| 245 | |
| 246 | On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program |
| 247 | rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the |
| 248 | error message: |
| 249 | |
| 250 | ptrace: No such process. |
| 251 | thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error |
| 252 | |
| 253 | This problem has been fixed. |
| 254 | |
| 255 | * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed. |
| 256 | |
| 257 | Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused |
| 258 | GDB to dump core). |
| 259 | |
| 260 | * New ``start'' command. |
| 261 | |
| 262 | This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure. |
| 263 | |
| 264 | * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface |
| 265 | |
| 266 | Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and |
| 267 | live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD |
| 268 | platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are: |
| 269 | |
| 270 | FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd* |
| 271 | FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd* |
| 272 | NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd* |
| 273 | NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd* |
| 274 | NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd* |
| 275 | OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd* |
| 276 | OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd* |
| 277 | OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd* |
| 278 | OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd* |
| 279 | |
| 280 | * Signal trampoline code overhauled |
| 281 | |
| 282 | Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed. |
| 283 | These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition |
| 284 | of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer |
| 285 | call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of |
| 286 | signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline. |
| 287 | |
| 288 | Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These |
| 289 | features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that |
| 290 | include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702. |
| 291 | |
| 292 | * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added. |
| 293 | |
| 294 | * New native configurations |
| 295 | |
| 296 | GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux* |
| 297 | OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd* |
| 298 | OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd* |
| 299 | OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd* |
| 300 | OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd* |
| 301 | NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd* |
| 302 | OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd* |
| 303 | |
| 304 | * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module |
| 305 | |
| 306 | GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten. |
| 307 | The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features |
| 308 | including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of |
| 309 | migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a |
| 310 | compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to |
| 311 | work, was also included. |
| 312 | |
| 313 | GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility |
| 314 | module. This change directly impacts the following configurations: |
| 315 | |
| 316 | h8300-*-* |
| 317 | mcore-*-* |
| 318 | mn10300-*-* |
| 319 | ns32k-*-* |
| 320 | sh64-*-* |
| 321 | v850-*-* |
| 322 | xstormy16-*-* |
| 323 | |
| 324 | Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be |
| 325 | made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4. |
| 326 | |
| 327 | * REMOVED configurations and files |
| 328 | |
| 329 | Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3* |
| 330 | Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4* |
| 331 | Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3* |
| 332 | Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4* |
| 333 | Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos* |
| 334 | AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-* |
| 335 | Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv* |
| 336 | decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-* |
| 337 | riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv* |
| 338 | sonymips mips-sony-* |
| 339 | sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included) |
| 340 | |
| 341 | *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1: |
| 342 | |
| 343 | * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1) |
| 344 | |
| 345 | The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default |
| 346 | GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the |
| 347 | command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui" |
| 348 | program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging |
| 349 | with GDB". |
| 350 | |
| 351 | * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1) |
| 352 | |
| 353 | Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared |
| 354 | libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location |
| 355 | cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto, |
| 356 | GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future |
| 357 | shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol, |
| 358 | the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints |
| 359 | are created. |
| 360 | |
| 361 | Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging. |
| 362 | |
| 363 | * Fixed ISO-C build problems |
| 364 | |
| 365 | The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained |
| 366 | non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C |
| 367 | compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler). |
| 368 | |
| 369 | * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5 |
| 370 | |
| 371 | Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c |
| 372 | wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system. |
| 373 | |
| 374 | * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure |
| 375 | |
| 376 | The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute |
| 377 | permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of |
| 378 | systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519. |
| 379 | |
| 380 | * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler |
| 381 | |
| 382 | Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c |
| 383 | has been updated to use constant array sizes. |
| 384 | |
| 385 | * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7 |
| 386 | |
| 387 | GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in |
| 388 | its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to |
| 389 | panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628. |
| 390 | |
| 391 | * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code. |
| 392 | |
| 393 | When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated |
| 394 | by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is |
| 395 | not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value. |
| 396 | |
| 397 | *** Changes in GDB 6.1: |
| 398 | |
| 399 | * Removed --with-mmalloc |
| 400 | |
| 401 | Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it |
| 402 | conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache. |
| 403 | |
| 404 | * Changes in AMD64 configurations |
| 405 | |
| 406 | The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result |
| 407 | the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point |
| 408 | and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging, |
| 409 | you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side. |
| 410 | |
| 411 | * Revised SPARC target |
| 412 | |
| 413 | The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the |
| 414 | FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result |
| 415 | support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions |
| 416 | from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack |
| 417 | (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works. |
| 418 | |
| 419 | * New C++ demangler |
| 420 | |
| 421 | GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled |
| 422 | names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so |
| 423 | with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++ |
| 424 | programs. |
| 425 | |
| 426 | * DWARF 2 Location Expressions |
| 427 | |
| 428 | GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function |
| 429 | arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they |
| 430 | encountered these. |
| 431 | |
| 432 | * C++ nested types and namespaces |
| 433 | |
| 434 | GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been |
| 435 | improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This |
| 436 | is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.) |
| 437 | Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or |
| 438 | namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is |
| 439 | "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the |
| 440 | frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition, |
| 441 | if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace, |
| 442 | GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly. |
| 443 | |
| 444 | * New native configurations |
| 445 | |
| 446 | NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd* |
| 447 | OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd* |
| 448 | OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd* |
| 449 | OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd* |
| 450 | OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd* |
| 451 | |
| 452 | * New debugging protocols |
| 453 | |
| 454 | M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf* |
| 455 | |
| 456 | * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted. |
| 457 | |
| 458 | The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command, |
| 459 | and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented, |
| 460 | tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file. |
| 461 | |
| 462 | * OBSOLETE configurations and files |
| 463 | |
| 464 | Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have |
| 465 | been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these |
| 466 | configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources |
| 467 | permanently REMOVED. |
| 468 | |
| 469 | Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3* |
| 470 | Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4* |
| 471 | Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3* |
| 472 | Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4* |
| 473 | Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos* |
| 474 | AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-* |
| 475 | Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv* |
| 476 | decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-* |
| 477 | riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv* |
| 478 | sonymips mips-sony-* |
| 479 | sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included) |
| 480 | |
| 481 | * REMOVED configurations and files |
| 482 | |
| 483 | SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4 |
| 484 | SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris |
| 485 | Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim |
| 486 | Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-* |
| 487 | H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms |
| 488 | HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd* |
| 489 | HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf* |
| 490 | HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro* |
| 491 | PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3* |
| 492 | 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd* |
| 493 | Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4* |
| 494 | i[3456]86-sequent-sysv* |
| 495 | i[3456]86-sequent-bsd* |
| 496 | SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos* |
| 497 | SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4* |
| 498 | Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-* |
| 499 | Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite |
| 500 | |
| 501 | *** Changes in GDB 6.0: |
| 502 | |
| 503 | * Objective-C |
| 504 | |
| 505 | Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been |
| 506 | integrated into GDB. |
| 507 | |
| 508 | * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information). |
| 509 | |
| 510 | DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated |
| 511 | information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack. |
| 512 | By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack |
| 513 | backtraces. |
| 514 | |
| 515 | The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets |
| 516 | have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes |
| 517 | DWARF 2 CFI support. |
| 518 | |
| 519 | * Hosted file I/O. |
| 520 | |
| 521 | GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted |
| 522 | file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's |
| 523 | remote protocol documentation for details. |
| 524 | |
| 525 | * All targets using the new architecture framework. |
| 526 | |
| 527 | All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal |
| 528 | architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases |
| 529 | to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64, |
| 530 | ppc32 on ppc64). |
| 531 | |
| 532 | * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS) |
| 533 | |
| 534 | GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of |
| 535 | per-thread variables. |
| 536 | |
| 537 | * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL) |
| 538 | |
| 539 | GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new |
| 540 | GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library. |
| 541 | |
| 542 | * Separate debug info. |
| 543 | |
| 544 | GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for |
| 545 | automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead |
| 546 | of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries, |
| 547 | system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries |
| 548 | and optional debug files. |
| 549 | |
| 550 | * DWARF 2 Location Expressions |
| 551 | |
| 552 | DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely |
| 553 | describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the |
| 554 | debugger. |
| 555 | |
| 556 | GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support |
| 557 | for DW_OP_piece is still missing). |
| 558 | |
| 559 | * Java |
| 560 | |
| 561 | A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a |
| 562 | Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now |
| 563 | considered "useable". |
| 564 | |
| 565 | * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec. |
| 566 | |
| 567 | The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode" |
| 568 | commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later |
| 569 | kernel. |
| 570 | |
| 571 | * GDB supports logging output to a file |
| 572 | |
| 573 | There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be |
| 574 | used to capture GDB's output to a file. |
| 575 | |
| 576 | * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver |
| 577 | |
| 578 | The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To |
| 579 | disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect" |
| 580 | command. |
| 581 | |
| 582 | * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated |
| 583 | |
| 584 | The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the |
| 585 | registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command. |
| 586 | |
| 587 | * Profiling support |
| 588 | |
| 589 | A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can |
| 590 | be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a |
| 591 | session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch, |
| 592 | "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling |
| 593 | data, for more informative profiling results. |
| 594 | |
| 595 | * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2". |
| 596 | |
| 597 | The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line |
| 598 | option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax, |
| 599 | "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1". |
| 600 | |
| 601 | Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been |
| 602 | removed. |
| 603 | |
| 604 | Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level. |
| 605 | Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format. |
| 606 | Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up |
| 607 | in a subsequent -var-update. |
| 608 | |
| 609 | * New native configurations. |
| 610 | |
| 611 | FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd* |
| 612 | |
| 613 | * Multi-arched targets. |
| 614 | |
| 615 | HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux* |
| 616 | Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf* |
| 617 | |
| 618 | * OBSOLETE configurations and files |
| 619 | |
| 620 | Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have |
| 621 | been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these |
| 622 | configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources |
| 623 | permanently REMOVED. |
| 624 | |
| 625 | Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim |
| 626 | Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-* |
| 627 | H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms |
| 628 | HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd* |
| 629 | HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf* |
| 630 | HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro* |
| 631 | PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3* |
| 632 | Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4* |
| 633 | i[3456]86-sequent-sysv* |
| 634 | i[3456]86-sequent-bsd* |
| 635 | Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-* |
| 636 | Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite |
| 637 | |
| 638 | * REMOVED configurations and files |
| 639 | |
| 640 | V850EA ISA |
| 641 | Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88 |
| 642 | IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix |
| 643 | i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3* |
| 644 | i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach* |
| 645 | i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk* |
| 646 | HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*, |
| 647 | m68*-apollo*-bsd*, |
| 648 | m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux* |
| 649 | Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-* |
| 650 | Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-* |
| 651 | Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf* |
| 652 | OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k |
| 653 | I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff |
| 654 | |
| 655 | * MIPS $fp behavior changed |
| 656 | |
| 657 | The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns |
| 658 | the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the |
| 659 | context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base |
| 660 | address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB: |
| 661 | The GNU Source-Level Debugger''. |
| 662 | |
| 663 | *** Changes in GDB 5.3: |
| 664 | |
| 665 | * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved. |
| 666 | |
| 667 | When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses |
| 668 | `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result |
| 669 | in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared |
| 670 | library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads |
| 671 | shared libs like mad''. |
| 672 | |
| 673 | * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets |
| 674 | |
| 675 | Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use |
| 676 | the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for |
| 677 | arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*, |
| 678 | powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*. |
| 679 | |
| 680 | * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros. |
| 681 | |
| 682 | GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions, |
| 683 | and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how |
| 684 | they expand. |
| 685 | |
| 686 | The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro |
| 687 | invocations in expression, and shows the result. |
| 688 | |
| 689 | The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the |
| 690 | macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined. |
| 691 | |
| 692 | Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging |
| 693 | information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile |
| 694 | your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro |
| 695 | information is present in the executable, GDB will read it. |
| 696 | |
| 697 | * Multi-arched targets. |
| 698 | |
| 699 | DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-* |
| 700 | DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-* |
| 701 | NEC V850 v850-*-* |
| 702 | National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-* |
| 703 | Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-* |
| 704 | Motorola MCORE mcore-*-* |
| 705 | |
| 706 | * New targets. |
| 707 | |
| 708 | Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-* |
| 709 | |
| 710 | |
| 711 | * New native configurations |
| 712 | |
| 713 | Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd* |
| 714 | SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf* |
| 715 | MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd* |
| 716 | UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd* |
| 717 | |
| 718 | * OBSOLETE configurations and files |
| 719 | |
| 720 | Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have |
| 721 | been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these |
| 722 | configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources |
| 723 | permanently REMOVED. |
| 724 | |
| 725 | Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-* |
| 726 | OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k |
| 727 | IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix |
| 728 | Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf* |
| 729 | Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88 |
| 730 | Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-* |
| 731 | i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3* |
| 732 | i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach* |
| 733 | i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk* |
| 734 | HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*, |
| 735 | m68*-apollo*-bsd*, |
| 736 | m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux* |
| 737 | I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff |
| 738 | |
| 739 | * OBSOLETE languages |
| 740 | |
| 741 | CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies. |
| 742 | |
| 743 | * REMOVED configurations and files |
| 744 | |
| 745 | AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k |
| 746 | A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks |
| 747 | AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none |
| 748 | AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff |
| 749 | AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout |
| 750 | |
| 751 | testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory |
| 752 | |
| 753 | * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>" |
| 754 | |
| 755 | This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined |
| 756 | commands. The default is 1024. |
| 757 | |
| 758 | * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging. |
| 759 | |
| 760 | Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added. |
| 761 | |
| 762 | * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore". |
| 763 | |
| 764 | These commands allow data to be copied from target memory |
| 765 | to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back |
| 766 | from a file into memory (restore). |
| 767 | |
| 768 | * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64. |
| 769 | |
| 770 | The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems, |
| 771 | including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use |
| 772 | of a software single-step mechanism prevents this. |
| 773 | |
| 774 | *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1: |
| 775 | |
| 776 | * New targets. |
| 777 | |
| 778 | Atmel AVR avr*-*-* |
| 779 | |
| 780 | * Bug fixes |
| 781 | |
| 782 | gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting: |
| 783 | mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized |
| 784 | Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline. |
| 785 | |
| 786 | gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting: |
| 787 | dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize |
| 788 | Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline. |
| 789 | |
| 790 | Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways. |
| 791 | Surprisingly enough, it works now. |
| 792 | By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline. |
| 793 | |
| 794 | i386 hardware watchpoint support: |
| 795 | avoid misses on second run for some targets. |
| 796 | By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline. |
| 797 | |
| 798 | *** Changes in GDB 5.2: |
| 799 | |
| 800 | * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]". |
| 801 | |
| 802 | This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections |
| 803 | really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change). |
| 804 | In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the |
| 805 | target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text"). |
| 806 | This can be a significant performance improvement on some |
| 807 | (notably embedded) targets. |
| 808 | |
| 809 | * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore"). |
| 810 | |
| 811 | This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child |
| 812 | process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for |
| 813 | GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other |
| 814 | hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>). |
| 815 | |
| 816 | * New command line option |
| 817 | |
| 818 | GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id. |
| 819 | |
| 820 | * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids. |
| 821 | |
| 822 | There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles |
| 823 | command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always |
| 824 | a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either |
| 825 | be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to |
| 826 | open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would |
| 827 | issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as |
| 828 | a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit, |
| 829 | it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit, |
| 830 | GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process |
| 831 | is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile. |
| 832 | |
| 833 | * Changes in ARM configurations. |
| 834 | |
| 835 | Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD |
| 836 | configuration is fully multi-arch. |
| 837 | |
| 838 | * New native configurations |
| 839 | |
| 840 | ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd* |
| 841 | x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd* |
| 842 | AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-* |
| 843 | Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd* |
| 844 | |
| 845 | * New targets |
| 846 | |
| 847 | Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf |
| 848 | |
| 849 | * OBSOLETE configurations and files |
| 850 | |
| 851 | Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have |
| 852 | been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these |
| 853 | configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources |
| 854 | permanently REMOVED. |
| 855 | |
| 856 | AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k |
| 857 | A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks |
| 858 | AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none |
| 859 | AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff |
| 860 | AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout |
| 861 | |
| 862 | testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory |
| 863 | |
| 864 | * REMOVED configurations and files |
| 865 | |
| 866 | TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-* |
| 867 | WDC 65816 w65-*-* |
| 868 | PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris* |
| 869 | PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32 |
| 870 | PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware* |
| 871 | Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux* |
| 872 | Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-* |
| 873 | ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-* |
| 874 | SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos* |
| 875 | Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern* |
| 876 | Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news |
| 877 | ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-* |
| 878 | Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos* |
| 879 | |
| 880 | * Changes to command line processing |
| 881 | |
| 882 | The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments |
| 883 | for the inferior from gdb's command line. |
| 884 | |
| 885 | * Changes to key bindings |
| 886 | |
| 887 | There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'. |
| 888 | |
| 889 | *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1 |
| 890 | |
| 891 | Fix compile problem on DJGPP. |
| 892 | |
| 893 | Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being |
| 894 | corrupted. |
| 895 | |
| 896 | Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info. |
| 897 | |
| 898 | Numerous documentation fixes. |
| 899 | |
| 900 | Numerous testsuite fixes. |
| 901 | |
| 902 | *** Changes in GDB 5.1: |
| 903 | |
| 904 | * New native configurations |
| 905 | |
| 906 | Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd* |
| 907 | x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]* |
| 908 | MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux* |
| 909 | MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6* |
| 910 | ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix* |
| 911 | s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux* |
| 912 | |
| 913 | * New targets |
| 914 | |
| 915 | Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf |
| 916 | CRIS cris-axis |
| 917 | UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux* |
| 918 | |
| 919 | * OBSOLETE configurations and files |
| 920 | |
| 921 | x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*, |
| 922 | Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux* |
| 923 | Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-* |
| 924 | ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-* |
| 925 | TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-* |
| 926 | WDC 65816 w65-*-* |
| 927 | Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern* |
| 928 | PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris* |
| 929 | PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32 |
| 930 | PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware* |
| 931 | SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos* |
| 932 | Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news |
| 933 | ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-* |
| 934 | Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A |
| 935 | |
| 936 | stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb) |
| 937 | kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger) |
| 938 | |
| 939 | Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have |
| 940 | been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these |
| 941 | configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources |
| 942 | permanently REMOVED. |
| 943 | |
| 944 | * REMOVED configurations and files |
| 945 | |
| 946 | Altos 3068 m68*-altos-* |
| 947 | Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-* |
| 948 | Pyramid pyramid-*-* |
| 949 | ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host) |
| 950 | Tahoe tahoe-*-* |
| 951 | ser-ocd.c *-*-* |
| 952 | |
| 953 | * GDB has been converted to ISO C. |
| 954 | |
| 955 | GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the |
| 956 | sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being |
| 957 | present. |
| 958 | |
| 959 | * Other news: |
| 960 | |
| 961 | * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM. |
| 962 | |
| 963 | * The MI enabled by default. |
| 964 | |
| 965 | The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been |
| 966 | revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging |
| 967 | engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to |
| 968 | using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface |
| 969 | which is now deprecated. |
| 970 | |
| 971 | * Support for debugging Pascal programs. |
| 972 | |
| 973 | GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following |
| 974 | main features are supported: |
| 975 | |
| 976 | - Pascal-specific data types such as sets; |
| 977 | |
| 978 | - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name |
| 979 | extension; |
| 980 | |
| 981 | - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions; |
| 982 | |
| 983 | - a Pascal expression parser. |
| 984 | |
| 985 | However, some important features are not yet supported. |
| 986 | |
| 987 | - Pascal string operations are not supported at all; |
| 988 | |
| 989 | - there are some problems with boolean types; |
| 990 | |
| 991 | - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported |
| 992 | because they conflict with the internal variables format; |
| 993 | |
| 994 | - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet; |
| 995 | |
| 996 | - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names. |
| 997 | |
| 998 | * Changes in completion. |
| 999 | |
| 1000 | Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments |
| 1001 | to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what |
| 1002 | users expect at the shell prompt. |
| 1003 | |
| 1004 | Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print', |
| 1005 | `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as |
| 1006 | program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source |
| 1007 | files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will |
| 1008 | be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not |
| 1009 | considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file |
| 1010 | name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar". |
| 1011 | |
| 1012 | `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles. |
| 1013 | |
| 1014 | * New platform-independent commands: |
| 1015 | |
| 1016 | It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a |
| 1017 | hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the |
| 1018 | documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual. |
| 1019 | |
| 1020 | * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging. |
| 1021 | |
| 1022 | Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely |
| 1023 | revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as |
| 1024 | many threads as your system allows you to have. |
| 1025 | |
| 1026 | Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs. |
| 1027 | |
| 1028 | Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for |
| 1029 | multi-threaded programs though. |
| 1030 | |
| 1031 | * Changes in MIPS configurations. |
| 1032 | |
| 1033 | Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations. |
| 1034 | |
| 1035 | GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for |
| 1036 | debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet |
| 1037 | supported.) |
| 1038 | |
| 1039 | * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations. |
| 1040 | |
| 1041 | Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted |
| 1042 | breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support |
| 1043 | implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to |
| 1044 | put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address, |
| 1045 | and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug |
| 1046 | registers. |
| 1047 | |
| 1048 | The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles |
| 1049 | debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test |
| 1050 | watchpoints and hardware breakpoints. |
| 1051 | |
| 1052 | * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration. |
| 1053 | |
| 1054 | New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about |
| 1055 | the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server. |
| 1056 | |
| 1057 | New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt'' |
| 1058 | display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and |
| 1059 | IDT. |
| 1060 | |
| 1061 | New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries |
| 1062 | from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only). |
| 1063 | New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for |
| 1064 | a given linear address. |
| 1065 | |
| 1066 | GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the |
| 1067 | program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library |
| 1068 | which is part of the DJGPP development kit). |
| 1069 | |
| 1070 | DWARF2 debug info is now supported. |
| 1071 | |
| 1072 | It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'. |
| 1073 | |
| 1074 | * Changes in documentation. |
| 1075 | |
| 1076 | All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free |
| 1077 | Documentation License. |
| 1078 | |
| 1079 | Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB |
| 1080 | manual. |
| 1081 | |
| 1082 | TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual. |
| 1083 | |
| 1084 | Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB |
| 1085 | manual. |
| 1086 | |
| 1087 | The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes |
| 1088 | documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86 |
| 1089 | hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes. |
| 1090 | |
| 1091 | * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in'' |
| 1092 | |
| 1093 | The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file |
| 1094 | ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the |
| 1095 | contents of this file. |
| 1096 | |
| 1097 | * gdba.el deleted |
| 1098 | |
| 1099 | GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution. |
| 1100 | |
| 1101 | *** Changes in GDB 5.0: |
| 1102 | |
| 1103 | * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets |
| 1104 | |
| 1105 | Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point |
| 1106 | programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now |
| 1107 | displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with |
| 1108 | greater level of detail. |
| 1109 | |
| 1110 | * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints |
| 1111 | |
| 1112 | It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and |
| 1113 | bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints |
| 1114 | on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is |
| 1115 | written. |
| 1116 | |
| 1117 | * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB |
| 1118 | |
| 1119 | The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files |
| 1120 | necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows |
| 1121 | machines ``out of the box''. |
| 1122 | |
| 1123 | The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is |
| 1124 | possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver |
| 1125 | signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal |
| 1126 | would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware |
| 1127 | interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged. |
| 1128 | |
| 1129 | It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their |
| 1130 | standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or |
| 1131 | even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected, |
| 1132 | and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's |
| 1133 | terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc. |
| 1134 | |
| 1135 | The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which |
| 1136 | enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C |
| 1137 | also works. |
| 1138 | |
| 1139 | DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by |
| 1140 | GDB. |
| 1141 | |
| 1142 | It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working |
| 1143 | directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of |
| 1144 | times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup, |
| 1145 | breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions. |
| 1146 | |
| 1147 | * New native configurations |
| 1148 | |
| 1149 | ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux* |
| 1150 | PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux* |
| 1151 | |
| 1152 | * New targets |
| 1153 | |
| 1154 | Motorola MCore mcore-*-* |
| 1155 | x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks* |
| 1156 | PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks* |
| 1157 | TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-* |
| 1158 | |
| 1159 | * OBSOLETE configurations |
| 1160 | |
| 1161 | Altos 3068 m68*-altos-* |
| 1162 | Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-* |
| 1163 | Pyramid pyramid-*-* |
| 1164 | ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host) |
| 1165 | Tahoe tahoe-*-* |
| 1166 | |
| 1167 | Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out, |
| 1168 | but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive |
| 1169 | these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will |
| 1170 | be permanently REMOVED. |
| 1171 | |
| 1172 | * Gould support removed |
| 1173 | |
| 1174 | Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed. |
| 1175 | |
| 1176 | * New features for SVR4 |
| 1177 | |
| 1178 | On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process |
| 1179 | without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and |
| 1180 | load symbols from the running process's executable file. |
| 1181 | |
| 1182 | * Many C++ enhancements |
| 1183 | |
| 1184 | C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly |
| 1185 | in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way. |
| 1186 | |
| 1187 | * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program |
| 1188 | |
| 1189 | A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a |
| 1190 | sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates |
| 1191 | with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax |
| 1192 | ``|<program> <args>'' vis: |
| 1193 | |
| 1194 | (gdb) set remotedebug 1 |
| 1195 | (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args |
| 1196 | |
| 1197 | * MIPS 64 remote protocol |
| 1198 | |
| 1199 | A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB |
| 1200 | expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32 |
| 1201 | instead of 64 bits has been fixed. |
| 1202 | |
| 1203 | The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been |
| 1204 | added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB. |
| 1205 | |
| 1206 | * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet'' |
| 1207 | |
| 1208 | The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by |
| 1209 | ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family |
| 1210 | include ``set remote P-packet''. |
| 1211 | |
| 1212 | * Breakpoint commands accept ranges. |
| 1213 | |
| 1214 | The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now |
| 1215 | accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command |
| 1216 | ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints. |
| 1217 | |
| 1218 | * ``apropos'' command added. |
| 1219 | |
| 1220 | The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and |
| 1221 | documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to |
| 1222 | try to find a command that does what you are looking for. |
| 1223 | |
| 1224 | * New MI interface |
| 1225 | |
| 1226 | A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This |
| 1227 | interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate |
| 1228 | process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the |
| 1229 | "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be |
| 1230 | enabled by configuring with: |
| 1231 | |
| 1232 | .../configure --enable-gdbmi |
| 1233 | |
| 1234 | *** Changes in GDB-4.18: |
| 1235 | |
| 1236 | * New native configurations |
| 1237 | |
| 1238 | HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20 |
| 1239 | HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0* |
| 1240 | M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux* |
| 1241 | |
| 1242 | * New targets |
| 1243 | |
| 1244 | Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf* |
| 1245 | Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-* |
| 1246 | Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-* |
| 1247 | |
| 1248 | * OBSOLETE configurations |
| 1249 | |
| 1250 | Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-* |
| 1251 | |
| 1252 | Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out, |
| 1253 | but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive |
| 1254 | these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will |
| 1255 | be permanently REMOVED. |
| 1256 | |
| 1257 | * ANSI/ISO C |
| 1258 | |
| 1259 | As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and |
| 1260 | buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer |
| 1261 | containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in |
| 1262 | use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port |
| 1263 | available. If this is not true, please report the affected |
| 1264 | configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for |
| 1265 | information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one |
| 1266 | already. |
| 1267 | |
| 1268 | * Readline 2.2 |
| 1269 | |
| 1270 | GDB now uses readline 2.2. |
| 1271 | |
| 1272 | * set extension-language |
| 1273 | |
| 1274 | You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source |
| 1275 | languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance, |
| 1276 | you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying |
| 1277 | set extension-language .c c++ |
| 1278 | The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions |
| 1279 | and their associated languages. |
| 1280 | |
| 1281 | * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000 |
| 1282 | |
| 1283 | When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target, |
| 1284 | you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the |
| 1285 | PowerPC family you are debugging. The command |
| 1286 | |
| 1287 | set processor NAME |
| 1288 | |
| 1289 | sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the |
| 1290 | following PowerPC and RS6000 variants: |
| 1291 | |
| 1292 | ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code |
| 1293 | rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view |
| 1294 | 403 IBM PowerPC 403 |
| 1295 | 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC |
| 1296 | 505 Motorola PowerPC 505 |
| 1297 | 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850 |
| 1298 | 601 Motorola PowerPC 601 |
| 1299 | 602 Motorola PowerPC 602 |
| 1300 | 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e |
| 1301 | 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e |
| 1302 | 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750 |
| 1303 | |
| 1304 | At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the |
| 1305 | special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected |
| 1306 | registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is |
| 1307 | only useful for remote debugging in its present form. |
| 1308 | |
| 1309 | * HP-UX support |
| 1310 | |
| 1311 | Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much |
| 1312 | more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared |
| 1313 | library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00, |
| 1314 | support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode |
| 1315 | for xdb and dbx commands. |
| 1316 | |
| 1317 | * Catchpoints |
| 1318 | |
| 1319 | HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a |
| 1320 | generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible |
| 1321 | to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading. |
| 1322 | |
| 1323 | This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first |
| 1324 | argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the |
| 1325 | output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types. |
| 1326 | |
| 1327 | * Debugging across forks |
| 1328 | |
| 1329 | On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens |
| 1330 | in the inferior. |
| 1331 | |
| 1332 | * TUI |
| 1333 | |
| 1334 | HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get |
| 1335 | it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any |
| 1336 | configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging. |
| 1337 | |
| 1338 | * GDB remote protocol additions |
| 1339 | |
| 1340 | A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available. |
| 1341 | Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub |
| 1342 | fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload' |
| 1343 | allows explicit control over the use of 'X'. |
| 1344 | |
| 1345 | For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a |
| 1346 | full 64-bit address. The command |
| 1347 | |
| 1348 | set remoteaddresssize 32 |
| 1349 | |
| 1350 | can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs |
| 1351 | the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information |
| 1352 | will be discarded. |
| 1353 | |
| 1354 | In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance |
| 1355 | command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance, |
| 1356 | |
| 1357 | maint packet heythere |
| 1358 | |
| 1359 | sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to |
| 1360 | disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong |
| 1361 | time. |
| 1362 | |
| 1363 | The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the |
| 1364 | target to what is in the executable file without uploading or |
| 1365 | downloading, by comparing CRC checksums. |
| 1366 | |
| 1367 | * Tracing can collect general expressions |
| 1368 | |
| 1369 | You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires |
| 1370 | further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and |
| 1371 | doc/agentexpr.texi for further details. |
| 1372 | |
| 1373 | * mask-address variable for Mips |
| 1374 | |
| 1375 | For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of |
| 1376 | a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly |
| 1377 | of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors. |
| 1378 | |
| 1379 | * Higher serial baud rates |
| 1380 | |
| 1381 | GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200, |
| 1382 | 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able |
| 1383 | to achieve all of these rates.) |
| 1384 | |
| 1385 | * i960 simulator |
| 1386 | |
| 1387 | The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a |
| 1388 | builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson. |
| 1389 | |
| 1390 | |
| 1391 | *** Changes in GDB-4.17: |
| 1392 | |
| 1393 | * New native configurations |
| 1394 | |
| 1395 | Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux* |
| 1396 | Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2* |
| 1397 | Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6* |
| 1398 | PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux* |
| 1399 | PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris* |
| 1400 | Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux* |
| 1401 | Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv |
| 1402 | |
| 1403 | * New targets |
| 1404 | |
| 1405 | Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-* |
| 1406 | Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-* |
| 1407 | Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-* |
| 1408 | Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-* |
| 1409 | MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf* |
| 1410 | MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf* |
| 1411 | MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf* |
| 1412 | Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-* |
| 1413 | Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf* |
| 1414 | Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-* |
| 1415 | NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-* |
| 1416 | |
| 1417 | * New debugging protocols |
| 1418 | |
| 1419 | ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-* |
| 1420 | M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf} |
| 1421 | DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-* |
| 1422 | PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi |
| 1423 | PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi |
| 1424 | Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi |
| 1425 | |
| 1426 | * DWARF 2 |
| 1427 | |
| 1428 | All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging |
| 1429 | format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2 |
| 1430 | information. |
| 1431 | |
| 1432 | * Java frontend |
| 1433 | |
| 1434 | GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is |
| 1435 | only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code. |
| 1436 | |
| 1437 | * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path |
| 1438 | |
| 1439 | For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for |
| 1440 | loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for |
| 1441 | locating non-absolute shared library symbol files. |
| 1442 | |
| 1443 | * Live range splitting |
| 1444 | |
| 1445 | GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live |
| 1446 | range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for |
| 1447 | more details on the expected format of the stabs information. |
| 1448 | |
| 1449 | * Hurd support |
| 1450 | |
| 1451 | GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been |
| 1452 | updated to work with current versions of the Hurd. |
| 1453 | |
| 1454 | * ARM Thumb support |
| 1455 | |
| 1456 | GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit |
| 1457 | instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb |
| 1458 | instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing |
| 1459 | accordingly. |
| 1460 | |
| 1461 | * MIPS16 support |
| 1462 | |
| 1463 | GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit |
| 1464 | instruction set. |
| 1465 | |
| 1466 | * Overlay support |
| 1467 | |
| 1468 | GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been |
| 1469 | linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB |
| 1470 | will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to |
| 1471 | control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement |
| 1472 | additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring |
| 1473 | in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail. |
| 1474 | |
| 1475 | * info symbol |
| 1476 | |
| 1477 | The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about |
| 1478 | the symbol at the specified address. |
| 1479 | |
| 1480 | * Trace support |
| 1481 | |
| 1482 | The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows |
| 1483 | asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires |
| 1484 | extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode |
| 1485 | includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the |
| 1486 | file tracepoint.c for more details. |
| 1487 | |
| 1488 | * MIPS simulator |
| 1489 | |
| 1490 | Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed |
| 1491 | by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets |
| 1492 | of most MIPS variants. |
| 1493 | |
| 1494 | * Sparc simulator |
| 1495 | |
| 1496 | Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed |
| 1497 | by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into |
| 1498 | Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it. |
| 1499 | |
| 1500 | * set architecture |
| 1501 | |
| 1502 | For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a |
| 1503 | basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the |
| 1504 | architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists |
| 1505 | the possible architectures. |
| 1506 | |
| 1507 | *** Changes in GDB-4.16: |
| 1508 | |
| 1509 | * New native configurations |
| 1510 | |
| 1511 | Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32 |
| 1512 | M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd* |
| 1513 | PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix* |
| 1514 | PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos* |
| 1515 | PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32 |
| 1516 | RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4* |
| 1517 | |
| 1518 | * New targets |
| 1519 | |
| 1520 | ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-* |
| 1521 | I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff |
| 1522 | MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks* |
| 1523 | MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf* |
| 1524 | PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi* |
| 1525 | Hitachi SH3 sh-*-* |
| 1526 | Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-* |
| 1527 | |
| 1528 | * PowerPC simulator |
| 1529 | |
| 1530 | The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator, |
| 1531 | contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner. |
| 1532 | PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only |
| 1533 | basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit |
| 1534 | performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details. |
| 1535 | |
| 1536 | * Solaris 2.5 |
| 1537 | |
| 1538 | GDB now works with Solaris 2.5. |
| 1539 | |
| 1540 | * Windows 95/NT native |
| 1541 | |
| 1542 | GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT. |
| 1543 | To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment, |
| 1544 | which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools. |
| 1545 | Further information, binaries, and sources are available at |
| 1546 | ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32. |
| 1547 | |
| 1548 | * dont-repeat command |
| 1549 | |
| 1550 | If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the |
| 1551 | command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is |
| 1552 | useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental |
| 1553 | extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times. |
| 1554 | |
| 1555 | * Send break instead of ^C |
| 1556 | |
| 1557 | The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break |
| 1558 | rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default, |
| 1559 | GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1. |
| 1560 | |
| 1561 | * Remote protocol timeout |
| 1562 | |
| 1563 | The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout' |
| 1564 | that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying |
| 1565 | to read from the target. The default value is 2. |
| 1566 | |
| 1567 | * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only) |
| 1568 | |
| 1569 | By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are |
| 1570 | loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set |
| 1571 | stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior |
| 1572 | when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints |
| 1573 | in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior. |
| 1574 | |
| 1575 | Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link |
| 1576 | /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work |
| 1577 | automatically on hpux10. |
| 1578 | |
| 1579 | * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support |
| 1580 | |
| 1581 | Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints. |
| 1582 | |
| 1583 | * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit" |
| 1584 | |
| 1585 | When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you |
| 1586 | may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting |
| 1587 | the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore |
| 1588 | every character. The default value is 1050. |
| 1589 | |
| 1590 | * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions |
| 1591 | |
| 1592 | If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it |
| 1593 | a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be |
| 1594 | replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for |
| 1595 | details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing |
| 1596 | remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it |
| 1597 | to someone else, who can then recreate the problem. |
| 1598 | |
| 1599 | * Speedups for remote debugging |
| 1600 | |
| 1601 | GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using |
| 1602 | the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator, |
| 1603 | and more efficient S-record downloading. |
| 1604 | |
| 1605 | * Memory use reductions and statistics collection |
| 1606 | |
| 1607 | GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage. |
| 1608 | Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example. |
| 1609 | |
| 1610 | *** Changes in GDB-4.15: |
| 1611 | |
| 1612 | * Psymtabs for XCOFF |
| 1613 | |
| 1614 | The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This |
| 1615 | can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables. |
| 1616 | |
| 1617 | * Remote targets use caching |
| 1618 | |
| 1619 | Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the |
| 1620 | remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because |
| 1621 | it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to |
| 1622 | debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache |
| 1623 | off' turns the the data cache off. |
| 1624 | |
| 1625 | * Remote targets may have threads |
| 1626 | |
| 1627 | The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads |
| 1628 | in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See |
| 1629 | gdb/remote.c for details. |
| 1630 | |
| 1631 | * NetROM support |
| 1632 | |
| 1633 | If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include |
| 1634 | support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM |
| 1635 | acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can |
| 1636 | write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of |
| 1637 | support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use |
| 1638 | another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual |
| 1639 | sequence is something like |
| 1640 | |
| 1641 | target nrom <netrom-hostname> |
| 1642 | load <prog> |
| 1643 | target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235 |
| 1644 | |
| 1645 | * Macintosh host |
| 1646 | |
| 1647 | GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It |
| 1648 | may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and |
| 1649 | it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are |
| 1650 | available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the |
| 1651 | device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main |
| 1652 | directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration |
| 1653 | scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the |
| 1654 | mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested. |
| 1655 | |
| 1656 | * Autoconf |
| 1657 | |
| 1658 | GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible, |
| 1659 | but does simplify configuration and building. |
| 1660 | |
| 1661 | * hpux10 |
| 1662 | |
| 1663 | GDB now supports hpux10. |
| 1664 | |
| 1665 | *** Changes in GDB-4.14: |
| 1666 | |
| 1667 | * New native configurations |
| 1668 | |
| 1669 | x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd |
| 1670 | x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd |
| 1671 | NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd |
| 1672 | Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd |
| 1673 | |
| 1674 | * New targets |
| 1675 | |
| 1676 | A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks |
| 1677 | HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro* |
| 1678 | CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est* |
| 1679 | PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf |
| 1680 | WDC 65816 w65-*-* |
| 1681 | |
| 1682 | * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs |
| 1683 | |
| 1684 | GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it |
| 1685 | possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc |
| 1686 | filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines |
| 1687 | the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems |
| 1688 | if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started. |
| 1689 | |
| 1690 | * Arguments to user-defined commands |
| 1691 | |
| 1692 | User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace. |
| 1693 | Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A |
| 1694 | trivial example: |
| 1695 | define adder |
| 1696 | print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2 |
| 1697 | |
| 1698 | To execute the command use: |
| 1699 | adder 1 2 3 |
| 1700 | |
| 1701 | Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments. |
| 1702 | Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables, |
| 1703 | use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls. |
| 1704 | |
| 1705 | * New `if' and `while' commands |
| 1706 | |
| 1707 | This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined |
| 1708 | commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the |
| 1709 | expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to |
| 1710 | execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being |
| 1711 | terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an |
| 1712 | `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only |
| 1713 | if the expression is zero. |
| 1714 | |
| 1715 | * Fortran source language mode |
| 1716 | |
| 1717 | GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize |
| 1718 | Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but |
| 1719 | variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work |
| 1720 | with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other |
| 1721 | Fortran compilers. |
| 1722 | |
| 1723 | * Better HPUX support |
| 1724 | |
| 1725 | Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs |
| 1726 | running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked |
| 1727 | processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so |
| 1728 | for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change |
| 1729 | that behavior do the following before running the program: |
| 1730 | |
| 1731 | adb -w a.out |
| 1732 | __dld_flags?W 0x5 |
| 1733 | control-d |
| 1734 | |
| 1735 | This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write. |
| 1736 | To revert to the normal behavior, do this: |
| 1737 | |
| 1738 | adb -w a.out |
| 1739 | __dld_flags?W 0x4 |
| 1740 | control-d |
| 1741 | |
| 1742 | You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after |
| 1743 | the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have |
| 1744 | external linkage. |
| 1745 | |
| 1746 | GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on |
| 1747 | HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support). |
| 1748 | |
| 1749 | * Target byte order now dynamically selectable |
| 1750 | |
| 1751 | You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the |
| 1752 | commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the |
| 1753 | current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command |
| 1754 | "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order |
| 1755 | associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS |
| 1756 | configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order. |
| 1757 | |
| 1758 | * New DOS host serial code |
| 1759 | |
| 1760 | This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you |
| 1761 | no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to |
| 1762 | a PC's serial port. |
| 1763 | |
| 1764 | *** Changes in GDB-4.13: |
| 1765 | |
| 1766 | * New "complete" command |
| 1767 | |
| 1768 | This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it |
| 1769 | were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs. |
| 1770 | |
| 1771 | * Trailing space optional in prompt |
| 1772 | |
| 1773 | "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This |
| 1774 | allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not. |
| 1775 | |
| 1776 | * Breakpoint hit counts |
| 1777 | |
| 1778 | "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint |
| 1779 | has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you |
| 1780 | can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info |
| 1781 | to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one |
| 1782 | less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of |
| 1783 | that breakpoint. |
| 1784 | |
| 1785 | * Ability to stop printing at NULL character |
| 1786 | |
| 1787 | "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of |
| 1788 | an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large |
| 1789 | arrays actually contain only short strings. |
| 1790 | |
| 1791 | * Shared library breakpoints |
| 1792 | |
| 1793 | In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set |
| 1794 | breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run. |
| 1795 | |
| 1796 | * Hardware watchpoints |
| 1797 | |
| 1798 | There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite |
| 1799 | targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note. |
| 1800 | |
| 1801 | Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux. |
| 1802 | |
| 1803 | * Annotations |
| 1804 | |
| 1805 | Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces, |
| 1806 | and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these. |
| 1807 | |
| 1808 | * Improved Irix 5 support |
| 1809 | |
| 1810 | GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2. |
| 1811 | |
| 1812 | * Improved HPPA support |
| 1813 | |
| 1814 | GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS. |
| 1815 | |
| 1816 | * New native configurations |
| 1817 | |
| 1818 | Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4 |
| 1819 | HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf* |
| 1820 | Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4* |
| 1821 | RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos* |
| 1822 | |
| 1823 | * New targets |
| 1824 | |
| 1825 | OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k |
| 1826 | MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf} |
| 1827 | Sparc64 sparc64-*-* |
| 1828 | |
| 1829 | * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support |
| 1830 | |
| 1831 | There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE. |
| 1832 | This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH. |
| 1833 | |
| 1834 | * Fixes |
| 1835 | |
| 1836 | As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic |
| 1837 | and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail. |
| 1838 | |
| 1839 | *** Changes in GDB-4.12: |
| 1840 | |
| 1841 | * Irix 5 is now supported |
| 1842 | |
| 1843 | * HPPA support |
| 1844 | |
| 1845 | GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable |
| 1846 | to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and |
| 1847 | GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release |
| 1848 | of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12 |
| 1849 | can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist. |
| 1850 | |
| 1851 | |
| 1852 | *** Changes in GDB-4.11: |
| 1853 | |
| 1854 | * User visible changes: |
| 1855 | |
| 1856 | * Remote Debugging |
| 1857 | |
| 1858 | The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote |
| 1859 | target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's |
| 1860 | debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an |
| 1861 | integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more |
| 1862 | debugging info for the mips target). |
| 1863 | |
| 1864 | * DEC Alpha native support |
| 1865 | |
| 1866 | GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable |
| 1867 | debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should |
| 1868 | work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few |
| 1869 | Alpha-specific notes. |
| 1870 | |
| 1871 | * Preliminary thread implementation |
| 1872 | |
| 1873 | GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS. |
| 1874 | |
| 1875 | * LynxOS native and target support for 386 |
| 1876 | |
| 1877 | This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured |
| 1878 | to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README |
| 1879 | for details). |
| 1880 | |
| 1881 | * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling. |
| 1882 | |
| 1883 | This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name |
| 1884 | mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table, |
| 1885 | call methods, ...etc. |
| 1886 | |
| 1887 | *** Changes in GDB-4.10: |
| 1888 | |
| 1889 | * User visible changes: |
| 1890 | |
| 1891 | Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now |
| 1892 | supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some |
| 1893 | other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it |
| 1894 | somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download. |
| 1895 | |
| 1896 | Filename completion now works. |
| 1897 | |
| 1898 | When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the |
| 1899 | arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints |
| 1900 | addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex). |
| 1901 | |
| 1902 | All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called |
| 1903 | vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb |
| 1904 | should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if |
| 1905 | your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens |
| 1906 | to be on the far side of a thin network line. |
| 1907 | |
| 1908 | * DEC alpha support |
| 1909 | |
| 1910 | This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for |
| 1911 | cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet. |
| 1912 | |
| 1913 | |
| 1914 | *** Changes in GDB-4.9: |
| 1915 | |
| 1916 | * Testsuite |
| 1917 | |
| 1918 | This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite. |
| 1919 | The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available |
| 1920 | via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software. |
| 1921 | |
| 1922 | * C++ demangling |
| 1923 | |
| 1924 | 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to |
| 1925 | emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated |
| 1926 | Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite |
| 1927 | disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to |
| 1928 | use gdb with AT&T cfront. |
| 1929 | |
| 1930 | * Simulators |
| 1931 | |
| 1932 | GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library. |
| 1933 | So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the |
| 1934 | Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H. |
| 1935 | |
| 1936 | * New targets supported |
| 1937 | |
| 1938 | H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms |
| 1939 | H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms |
| 1940 | SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh |
| 1941 | Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim |
| 1942 | IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff |
| 1943 | |
| 1944 | Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom |
| 1945 | version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the |
| 1946 | GO32 memory extender. |
| 1947 | |
| 1948 | * New remote protocols |
| 1949 | |
| 1950 | MIPS remote debugging protocol. |
| 1951 | |
| 1952 | * New source languages supported |
| 1953 | |
| 1954 | This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language |
| 1955 | used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated |
| 1956 | into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available. |
| 1957 | |
| 1958 | |
| 1959 | *** Changes in GDB-4.8: |
| 1960 | |
| 1961 | * HP Precision Architecture supported |
| 1962 | |
| 1963 | GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary |
| 1964 | version of this support was available as a set of patches from the |
| 1965 | University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs |
| 1966 | compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file |
| 1967 | format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS |
| 1968 | (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z). |
| 1969 | |
| 1970 | Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed. |
| 1971 | |
| 1972 | * Faster and better demangling |
| 1973 | |
| 1974 | We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style |
| 1975 | demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide |
| 1976 | character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now |
| 1977 | only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in. |
| 1978 | This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate |
| 1979 | increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in |
| 1980 | symbol lookups. |
| 1981 | |
| 1982 | `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written |
| 1983 | from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's |
| 1984 | compiler does not actually implement. |
| 1985 | |
| 1986 | * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem |
| 1987 | |
| 1988 | In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple |
| 1989 | inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We |
| 1990 | recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a |
| 1991 | very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes. |
| 1992 | The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to |
| 1993 | circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete |
| 1994 | fix. |
| 1995 | |
| 1996 | The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7 |
| 1997 | release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2. |
| 1998 | |
| 1999 | * Improved configure script |
| 2000 | |
| 2001 | The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if |
| 2002 | you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a |
| 2003 | host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is |
| 2004 | done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details. |
| 2005 | |
| 2006 | We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's |
| 2007 | version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular, |
| 2008 | `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller. |
| 2009 | The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats -- |
| 2010 | only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system. |
| 2011 | We hope to make this the default in a future release. |
| 2012 | |
| 2013 | * Documentation improvements |
| 2014 | |
| 2015 | There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to |
| 2016 | produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it |
| 2017 | before submitting changes. |
| 2018 | |
| 2019 | The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane |
| 2020 | M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built |
| 2021 | `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch, |
| 2022 | you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in |
| 2023 | a future texinfo-X.Y release. |
| 2024 | |
| 2025 | *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang. |
| 2026 | We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has |
| 2027 | been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141 |
| 2028 | or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in |
| 2029 | `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work |
| 2030 | around this problem. |
| 2031 | |
| 2032 | * New features |
| 2033 | |
| 2034 | GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by |
| 2035 | the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type |
| 2036 | `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in |
| 2037 | the target program. |
| 2038 | |
| 2039 | The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates |
| 2040 | how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor. |
| 2041 | |
| 2042 | * New native hosts supported |
| 2043 | |
| 2044 | HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux |
| 2045 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4 |
| 2046 | |
| 2047 | * New targets supported |
| 2048 | |
| 2049 | AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k |
| 2050 | |
| 2051 | * New file formats supported |
| 2052 | |
| 2053 | BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?), |
| 2054 | HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files. |
| 2055 | |
| 2056 | * Major bug fixes |
| 2057 | |
| 2058 | Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports. |
| 2059 | |
| 2060 | We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by |
| 2061 | printf_filtered("%s") problems. |
| 2062 | |
| 2063 | We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files |
| 2064 | for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7 |
| 2065 | release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB. |
| 2066 | |
| 2067 | You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This |
| 2068 | will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB. |
| 2069 | |
| 2070 | We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors |
| 2071 | for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was |
| 2072 | especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared |
| 2073 | libraries. |
| 2074 | |
| 2075 | The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number |
| 2076 | information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next' |
| 2077 | command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was |
| 2078 | any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems |
| 2079 | when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines. |
| 2080 | |
| 2081 | * Internal improvements |
| 2082 | |
| 2083 | GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support |
| 2084 | debugging of multiple languages in the future. |
| 2085 | |
| 2086 | GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally. |
| 2087 | Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial |
| 2088 | symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols |
| 2089 | contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write |
| 2090 | shared code that handles any of them. |
| 2091 | |
| 2092 | * New command line options |
| 2093 | |
| 2094 | We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet. |
| 2095 | |
| 2096 | * Mmalloc licensing |
| 2097 | |
| 2098 | The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library |
| 2099 | General Public License. |
| 2100 | |
| 2101 | *** Changes in GDB-4.7: |
| 2102 | |
| 2103 | * Host/native/target split |
| 2104 | |
| 2105 | GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for |
| 2106 | hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote |
| 2107 | target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging |
| 2108 | local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will |
| 2109 | ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible. |
| 2110 | |
| 2111 | The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in |
| 2112 | GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB |
| 2113 | is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific |
| 2114 | code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on |
| 2115 | any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be |
| 2116 | built when the host and target are the same system. Child process |
| 2117 | handling and core file support are two common `native' examples. |
| 2118 | |
| 2119 | GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner. |
| 2120 | It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector, |
| 2121 | plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc. |
| 2122 | |
| 2123 | * New hosts supported |
| 2124 | |
| 2125 | HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd |
| 2126 | 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd |
| 2127 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco |
| 2128 | |
| 2129 | * New targets supported |
| 2130 | |
| 2131 | Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite |
| 2132 | 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-* |
| 2133 | |
| 2134 | * New native hosts supported |
| 2135 | |
| 2136 | 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd |
| 2137 | (386bsd is not well tested yet) |
| 2138 | 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco |
| 2139 | |
| 2140 | * New file formats supported |
| 2141 | |
| 2142 | BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It |
| 2143 | supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out |
| 2144 | format extended with minimal information about multiple sections. |
| 2145 | |
| 2146 | * New commands |
| 2147 | |
| 2148 | `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'. |
| 2149 | `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'. |
| 2150 | These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work. |
| 2151 | |
| 2152 | `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'. |
| 2153 | |
| 2154 | You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command |
| 2155 | scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed |
| 2156 | prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be |
| 2157 | executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo. |
| 2158 | |
| 2159 | * C++ improvements |
| 2160 | |
| 2161 | We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type |
| 2162 | info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which |
| 2163 | symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses. |
| 2164 | |
| 2165 | Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well. |
| 2166 | |
| 2167 | * Major bug fixes |
| 2168 | |
| 2169 | The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is |
| 2170 | fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output |
| 2171 | by the compiler. |
| 2172 | |
| 2173 | We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file |
| 2174 | support, with help from a dozen people on the net. |
| 2175 | |
| 2176 | John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so |
| 2177 | slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was |
| 2178 | that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal |
| 2179 | purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing |
| 2180 | the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++ |
| 2181 | mangled symbol sped things up a great deal. |
| 2182 | |
| 2183 | Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter |
| 2184 | about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol |
| 2185 | completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as |
| 2186 | we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6. |
| 2187 | |
| 2188 | * AMD 29k support |
| 2189 | |
| 2190 | A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can |
| 2191 | specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB |
| 2192 | calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the |
| 2193 | usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work |
| 2194 | in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces. |
| 2195 | |
| 2196 | We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger |
| 2197 | Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all |
| 2198 | of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to |
| 2199 | resolve this, and hope to have it available soon. |
| 2200 | |
| 2201 | * Remote interfaces |
| 2202 | |
| 2203 | We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets |
| 2204 | with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T') |
| 2205 | message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message. |
| 2206 | This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB |
| 2207 | needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional |
| 2208 | breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for |
| 2209 | each instruction being stepped through. |
| 2210 | |
| 2211 | The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for |
| 2212 | registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run. |
| 2213 | |
| 2214 | There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can |
| 2215 | find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the |
| 2216 | Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC |
| 2217 | processor with a serial port. |
| 2218 | |
| 2219 | * Configuration |
| 2220 | |
| 2221 | Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new |
| 2222 | `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are |
| 2223 | supported, and what files each one uses. |
| 2224 | |
| 2225 | * Library changes |
| 2226 | |
| 2227 | There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the |
| 2228 | disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains |
| 2229 | Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and |
| 2230 | disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines. |
| 2231 | |
| 2232 | The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General |
| 2233 | Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++ |
| 2234 | can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License |
| 2235 | grants all the rights from the General Public License. |
| 2236 | |
| 2237 | * Documentation |
| 2238 | |
| 2239 | The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete |
| 2240 | reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far |
| 2241 | as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We |
| 2242 | encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your |
| 2243 | system, and send improvements on the document in general (to |
| 2244 | bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu). |
| 2245 | |
| 2246 | And, of course, many bugs have been fixed. |
| 2247 | |
| 2248 | |
| 2249 | *** Changes in GDB-4.6: |
| 2250 | |
| 2251 | * Better support for C++ function names |
| 2252 | |
| 2253 | GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function |
| 2254 | names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names |
| 2255 | (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of |
| 2256 | single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'. |
| 2257 | Make use of command completion, it is your friend. |
| 2258 | |
| 2259 | GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are |
| 2260 | the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style. |
| 2261 | You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu, |
| 2262 | lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo' |
| 2263 | for the list of formats. |
| 2264 | |
| 2265 | * G++ symbol mangling problem |
| 2266 | |
| 2267 | Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for |
| 2268 | C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this |
| 2269 | directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you |
| 2270 | can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The |
| 2271 | usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains |
| 2272 | about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has |
| 2273 | this problem.) |
| 2274 | |
| 2275 | * New 'maintenance' command |
| 2276 | |
| 2277 | All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of |
| 2278 | the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This |
| 2279 | can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made: |
| 2280 | |
| 2281 | dump-me -> maintenance dump-me |
| 2282 | info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints |
| 2283 | printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms |
| 2284 | printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles |
| 2285 | printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols |
| 2286 | printsyms -> maintenance print symbols |
| 2287 | |
| 2288 | The following commands are new: |
| 2289 | |
| 2290 | maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to |
| 2291 | demangle a C++ link name and prints the result. |
| 2292 | maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol |
| 2293 | |
| 2294 | * Change to .gdbinit file processing |
| 2295 | |
| 2296 | We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments |
| 2297 | (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to |
| 2298 | be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still |
| 2299 | read after argv processing. |
| 2300 | |
| 2301 | * New hosts supported |
| 2302 | |
| 2303 | Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2 |
| 2304 | |
| 2305 | GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux |
| 2306 | |
| 2307 | We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This |
| 2308 | is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it |
| 2309 | for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or |
| 2310 | masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the |
| 2311 | fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option. |
| 2312 | It costs extra. |
| 2313 | |
| 2314 | * New targets supported |
| 2315 | |
| 2316 | Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms |
| 2317 | |
| 2318 | * More smarts about finding #include files |
| 2319 | |
| 2320 | GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for |
| 2321 | all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This |
| 2322 | greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files, |
| 2323 | especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from |
| 2324 | the one that contains your sources. |
| 2325 | |
| 2326 | We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting |
| 2327 | breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to |
| 2328 | try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.) |
| 2329 | |
| 2330 | * Interesting infernals change |
| 2331 | |
| 2332 | GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each |
| 2333 | section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the |
| 2334 | target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded |
| 2335 | stabs used by Solaris-2.0. |
| 2336 | |
| 2337 | * Bug fixes (of course!) |
| 2338 | |
| 2339 | There have been loads of fixes for the following things: |
| 2340 | mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k, |
| 2341 | i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc... |
| 2342 | |
| 2343 | See the ChangeLog for details. |
| 2344 | |
| 2345 | *** Changes in GDB-4.5: |
| 2346 | |
| 2347 | * New machines supported (host and target) |
| 2348 | |
| 2349 | IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000 |
| 2350 | |
| 2351 | SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4 |
| 2352 | |
| 2353 | * New malloc package |
| 2354 | |
| 2355 | GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc. |
| 2356 | Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also |
| 2357 | capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later. |
| 2358 | This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a |
| 2359 | pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For |
| 2360 | more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi. |
| 2361 | |
| 2362 | * info proc |
| 2363 | |
| 2364 | The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See |
| 2365 | 'help info proc' for details. |
| 2366 | |
| 2367 | * MIPS ecoff symbol table format |
| 2368 | |
| 2369 | The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts. |
| 2370 | Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this |
| 2371 | possible. |
| 2372 | |
| 2373 | * File name changes for MS-DOS |
| 2374 | |
| 2375 | Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to |
| 2376 | support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name |
| 2377 | conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32 |
| 2378 | environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note |
| 2379 | that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations |
| 2380 | in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging. |
| 2381 | |
| 2382 | * Cross byte order fixes |
| 2383 | |
| 2384 | Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS |
| 2385 | targets from hosts whose byte order differs. |
| 2386 | |
| 2387 | * New -mapped and -readnow options |
| 2388 | |
| 2389 | If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap' |
| 2390 | system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or |
| 2391 | `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your |
| 2392 | program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is |
| 2393 | called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'. |
| 2394 | Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file, |
| 2395 | and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading |
| 2396 | the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped' |
| 2397 | option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as |
| 2398 | starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option. |
| 2399 | |
| 2400 | You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using |
| 2401 | the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table |
| 2402 | information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command |
| 2403 | slower, but makes future operations faster. |
| 2404 | |
| 2405 | The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to |
| 2406 | build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information. |
| 2407 | A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future |
| 2408 | use is: |
| 2409 | |
| 2410 | gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname |
| 2411 | |
| 2412 | The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run. |
| 2413 | It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be |
| 2414 | shared across multiple host platforms. |
| 2415 | |
| 2416 | * longjmp() handling |
| 2417 | |
| 2418 | GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and |
| 2419 | siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to |
| 2420 | all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based |
| 2421 | platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4. |
| 2422 | |
| 2423 | * Solaris 2.0 |
| 2424 | |
| 2425 | Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At |
| 2426 | this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of |
| 2427 | reading symbols. |
| 2428 | |
| 2429 | * Bug fixes |
| 2430 | |
| 2431 | As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread. |
| 2432 | People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious |
| 2433 | crashes and trashed symbol tables. |
| 2434 | |
| 2435 | *** Changes in GDB-4.4: |
| 2436 | |
| 2437 | * New machines supported (host and target) |
| 2438 | |
| 2439 | SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco |
| 2440 | (except core files) |
| 2441 | BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd |
| 2442 | Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix |
| 2443 | |
| 2444 | * New machines supported (target) |
| 2445 | |
| 2446 | AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none |
| 2447 | |
| 2448 | * C++ support |
| 2449 | |
| 2450 | GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better. |
| 2451 | The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as |
| 2452 | per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide. |
| 2453 | |
| 2454 | GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS |
| 2455 | `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily |
| 2456 | extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a |
| 2457 | good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option |
| 2458 | will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is |
| 2459 | released. |
| 2460 | |
| 2461 | * New features for SVR4 |
| 2462 | |
| 2463 | GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS |
| 2464 | shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present |
| 2465 | only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs. |
| 2466 | |
| 2467 | The `info proc' command will print out information about any process |
| 2468 | on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment, |
| 2469 | it prints the address mappings of the process. |
| 2470 | |
| 2471 | If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to |
| 2472 | bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any). |
| 2473 | |
| 2474 | * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS |
| 2475 | |
| 2476 | Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols |
| 2477 | now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic |
| 2478 | skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which |
| 2479 | make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the |
| 2480 | same code linked statically. |
| 2481 | |
| 2482 | * New Getopt |
| 2483 | |
| 2484 | GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This |
| 2485 | version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will |
| 2486 | continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well. |
| 2487 | Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity |
| 2488 | added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the |
| 2489 | future by other options that begin with the same letter. |
| 2490 | |
| 2491 | * Bugs fixed |
| 2492 | |
| 2493 | The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed. |
| 2494 | Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled. |
| 2495 | See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details. |
| 2496 | |
| 2497 | |
| 2498 | *** Changes in GDB-4.3: |
| 2499 | |
| 2500 | * New machines supported (host and target) |
| 2501 | |
| 2502 | Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix |
| 2503 | NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000 |
| 2504 | Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88 |
| 2505 | |
| 2506 | * Almost SCO Unix support |
| 2507 | |
| 2508 | We had hoped to support: |
| 2509 | SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco |
| 2510 | (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release |
| 2511 | that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry |
| 2512 | about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes. |
| 2513 | |
| 2514 | * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support |
| 2515 | |
| 2516 | GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle |
| 2517 | debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support |
| 2518 | is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please |
| 2519 | send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were |
| 2520 | reqired (if any). |
| 2521 | |
| 2522 | * New Readline |
| 2523 | |
| 2524 | GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change |
| 2525 | is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously |
| 2526 | required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?). |
| 2527 | |
| 2528 | * Bugs fixed |
| 2529 | |
| 2530 | The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed. |
| 2531 | Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled. |
| 2532 | See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details. |
| 2533 | |
| 2534 | * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered): |
| 2535 | |
| 2536 | GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers |
| 2537 | supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These |
| 2538 | symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses. |
| 2539 | |
| 2540 | Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called |
| 2541 | mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level |
| 2542 | debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship |
| 2543 | mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc |
| 2544 | version 2. |
| 2545 | |
| 2546 | Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not |
| 2547 | really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get |
| 2548 | line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local |
| 2549 | variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the |
| 2550 | situation somewhat. |
| 2551 | |
| 2552 | When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck. |
| 2553 | However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and |
| 2554 | methods. |
| 2555 | |
| 2556 | We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on |
| 2557 | DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff |
| 2558 | encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet. |
| 2559 | |
| 2560 | |
| 2561 | *** Changes in GDB-4.2: |
| 2562 | |
| 2563 | * Improved configuration |
| 2564 | |
| 2565 | Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying. |
| 2566 | Porting BFD is simpler. |
| 2567 | |
| 2568 | * Stepping improved |
| 2569 | |
| 2570 | The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction |
| 2571 | of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur |
| 2572 | in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a |
| 2573 | function that has debugging information is called within the line. |
| 2574 | |
| 2575 | * Bug fixing |
| 2576 | |
| 2577 | Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain. |
| 2578 | |
| 2579 | * New host supported (not target) |
| 2580 | |
| 2581 | Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach |
| 2582 | |
| 2583 | |
| 2584 | *** Changes in GDB-4.1: |
| 2585 | |
| 2586 | * Multiple source language support |
| 2587 | |
| 2588 | GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages. |
| 2589 | It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension, |
| 2590 | and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the |
| 2591 | language of the function in the currently selected stack frame. |
| 2592 | You can also specifically set the language to be used, with |
| 2593 | `set language c' or `set language modula-2'. |
| 2594 | |
| 2595 | * GDB and Modula-2 |
| 2596 | |
| 2597 | GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler, |
| 2598 | currently under development at the State University of New York at |
| 2599 | Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will |
| 2600 | continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992. |
| 2601 | |
| 2602 | Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to |
| 2603 | debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the |
| 2604 | symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though! |
| 2605 | |
| 2606 | There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking, |
| 2607 | in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work. |
| 2608 | |
| 2609 | * set write on/off |
| 2610 | |
| 2611 | GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch |
| 2612 | a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify |
| 2613 | the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g. |
| 2614 | by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take |
| 2615 | effect immediately. |
| 2616 | |
| 2617 | * Automatic SunOS shared library reading |
| 2618 | |
| 2619 | When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its |
| 2620 | shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols. |
| 2621 | The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when |
| 2622 | examining core files. |
| 2623 | |
| 2624 | * set listsize |
| 2625 | |
| 2626 | You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows. |
| 2627 | The default is 10. |
| 2628 | |
| 2629 | * New machines supported (host and target) |
| 2630 | |
| 2631 | SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris |
| 2632 | Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news |
| 2633 | Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3 |
| 2634 | |
| 2635 | * New hosts supported (not targets) |
| 2636 | |
| 2637 | IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc |
| 2638 | |
| 2639 | * New targets supported (not hosts) |
| 2640 | |
| 2641 | AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff |
| 2642 | AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout |
| 2643 | Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern |
| 2644 | |
| 2645 | * New remote interfaces |
| 2646 | |
| 2647 | AMD 29000 Adapt |
| 2648 | AMD 29000 Minimon |
| 2649 | |
| 2650 | |
| 2651 | *** Changes in GDB-4.0: |
| 2652 | |
| 2653 | * New Facilities |
| 2654 | |
| 2655 | Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable. |
| 2656 | |
| 2657 | Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a |
| 2658 | target machine of another type. Communication with the target system |
| 2659 | is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the |
| 2660 | remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the |
| 2661 | remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb |
| 2662 | also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks, |
| 2663 | using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger |
| 2664 | stub on the target system. |
| 2665 | |
| 2666 | New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960. |
| 2667 | |
| 2668 | GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file'' |
| 2669 | library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple |
| 2670 | object file types such as a.out and coff. |
| 2671 | |
| 2672 | There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets |
| 2673 | refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it). |
| 2674 | |
| 2675 | |
| 2676 | * Control-Variable user interface simplified |
| 2677 | |
| 2678 | All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set |
| 2679 | by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command. |
| 2680 | |
| 2681 | For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>. |
| 2682 | ``Show prompt'' produces the response: |
| 2683 | Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>. |
| 2684 | |
| 2685 | What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will |
| 2686 | print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO'' |
| 2687 | will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show |
| 2688 | all of the variable descriptions and their current settings. |
| 2689 | |
| 2690 | confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are |
| 2691 | hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while |
| 2692 | it is already running. Default is ON. |
| 2693 | |
| 2694 | editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing |
| 2695 | of input. Previous lines can be recalled with |
| 2696 | control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B, |
| 2697 | you can search for commands with control-R, etc. |
| 2698 | Default is ON. |
| 2699 | |
| 2700 | history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history |
| 2701 | will be stored. The default is .gdb_history, |
| 2702 | or the value of the environment variable |
| 2703 | GDBHISTFILE. |
| 2704 | |
| 2705 | history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The |
| 2706 | default is 256, or the value of the environment variable |
| 2707 | HISTSIZE. |
| 2708 | |
| 2709 | history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will |
| 2710 | be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the |
| 2711 | file will not be saved. The default is OFF. |
| 2712 | |
| 2713 | history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like |
| 2714 | history expansion will be performed on |
| 2715 | command line input. The default is OFF. |
| 2716 | |
| 2717 | radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set |
| 2718 | to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted |
| 2719 | in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op. |
| 2720 | |
| 2721 | height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default |
| 2722 | is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#'' |
| 2723 | setting from the termcap entry matching the environment |
| 2724 | variable TERM. |
| 2725 | |
| 2726 | width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line. |
| 2727 | Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#'' |
| 2728 | setting from the termcap entry matching the environment |
| 2729 | variable TERM. |
| 2730 | |
| 2731 | Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and |
| 2732 | ``set width'' instead. |
| 2733 | |
| 2734 | print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays, |
| 2735 | such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks |
| 2736 | more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more |
| 2737 | ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON. |
| 2738 | |
| 2739 | print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default |
| 2740 | is OFF. |
| 2741 | |
| 2742 | print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on, |
| 2743 | "raw" form if off. |
| 2744 | |
| 2745 | print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts |
| 2746 | like instructions. |
| 2747 | |
| 2748 | print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF. |
| 2749 | |
| 2750 | |
| 2751 | * Support for Epoch Environment. |
| 2752 | |
| 2753 | The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One |
| 2754 | new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you |
| 2755 | are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own |
| 2756 | window. |
| 2757 | |
| 2758 | |
| 2759 | * Support for Shared Libraries |
| 2760 | |
| 2761 | GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries. |
| 2762 | Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced |
| 2763 | before the shared library has been linked with the program (this |
| 2764 | happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered). |
| 2765 | At any time after this linking (including when examining core files |
| 2766 | from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each |
| 2767 | shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command. |
| 2768 | It can be abbreviated ``share''. |
| 2769 | |
| 2770 | sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files |
| 2771 | matching a unix regular expression. No argument |
| 2772 | indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries. |
| 2773 | |
| 2774 | info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries. |
| 2775 | |
| 2776 | |
| 2777 | * Watchpoints |
| 2778 | |
| 2779 | A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an |
| 2780 | expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution |
| 2781 | tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is |
| 2782 | quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse |
| 2783 | problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this |
| 2784 | more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware. |
| 2785 | |
| 2786 | watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression. |
| 2787 | |
| 2788 | info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints. |
| 2789 | |
| 2790 | delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). |
| 2791 | disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). |
| 2792 | enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints). |
| 2793 | |
| 2794 | |
| 2795 | * C++ multiple inheritance |
| 2796 | |
| 2797 | When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance |
| 2798 | for C++ programs. |
| 2799 | |
| 2800 | * C++ exception handling |
| 2801 | |
| 2802 | Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing |
| 2803 | ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on |
| 2804 | the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the |
| 2805 | handler's context). |
| 2806 | |
| 2807 | catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope, |
| 2808 | set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there. |
| 2809 | Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught. |
| 2810 | |
| 2811 | info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the |
| 2812 | current stack frame. |
| 2813 | |
| 2814 | |
| 2815 | * Minor command changes |
| 2816 | |
| 2817 | The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print |
| 2818 | command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result |
| 2819 | is void. This is similar to dbx usage. |
| 2820 | |
| 2821 | The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up |
| 2822 | at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change |
| 2823 | frames without printing. |
| 2824 | |
| 2825 | * New directory command |
| 2826 | |
| 2827 | 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path. |
| 2828 | The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information |
| 2829 | about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even |
| 2830 | with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't |
| 2831 | find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .". |
| 2832 | |
| 2833 | * Configuring GDB for compilation |
| 2834 | |
| 2835 | For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo |
| 2836 | for more details. |
| 2837 | |
| 2838 | GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between |
| 2839 | two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''. |
| 2840 | Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine |
| 2841 | where the program that you are debugging will run. |