* gdb.ada/taft_type/pck.ads, gdb.ada/taft_type/pck.adb,
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.7
5
6 * New commands
7
8 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
9 show print frame-arguments
10 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
11 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
12
13 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
14 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
15
16 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
17 is resolved.
18
19 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
20 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
21 and in inlined functions.
22
23 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
24 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
25 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
26
27 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
28
29 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
30 registers on PowerPC targets.
31
32 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
33 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
34
35 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
36 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
37
38 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
39 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
40 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
41 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
42
43 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
44 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
45 target architectures.
46
47 * New commands
48
49 remote put
50 remote get
51 remote delete
52 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
53
54 * New MI commands
55
56 -target-file-put
57 -target-file-get
58 -target-file-delete
59 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
60
61 * New remote packets
62
63 vFile:open:
64 vFile:close:
65 vFile:pread:
66 vFile:pwrite:
67 vFile:unlink:
68 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
69
70 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
71
72 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
73 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
74 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
75
76 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
77 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
78 -Bsymbolic linker option.
79
80 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
81 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
82 is not supported.
83
84 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
85 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
86
87 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
88 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
89
90 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
91
92 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
93 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
94 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
95
96 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
97 automatically displayed as character or string data.
98
99 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
100 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
101 as strings.
102
103 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
104 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
105 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
106
107 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
108 iWMMXt coprocessor.
109
110 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
111 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
112 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
113
114 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
115
116 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
117
118 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
119 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
120 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
121
122 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
123 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
124
125 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
126 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
127 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
128 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
129 Windows and SymbianOS).
130
131 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
132 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
133
134 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
135 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
136
137 * New commands
138
139 set remoteflow
140 show remoteflow
141 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
142 when debugging using remote targets.
143
144 set mem inaccessible-by-default
145 show mem inaccessible-by-default
146 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
147 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
148 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
149 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
150 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
151
152 set breakpoint auto-hw
153 show breakpoint auto-hw
154 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
155 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
156 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
157 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
158 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
159 including "next" and "finish".
160
161 catch exception
162 catch exception unhandled
163 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
164
165 catch assert
166 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
167
168 set sysroot
169 show sysroot
170 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
171 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
172 an alias to "set sysroot".
173
174 info spu
175 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
176 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
177 architecture.
178
179 * New native configurations
180
181 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
182
183 set tdesc filename
184 unset tdesc filename
185 show tdesc filename
186 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
187 not query the target for its built-in description.
188
189 * New targets
190
191 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
192 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
193 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
194
195 * New remote packets
196
197 QPassSignals:
198 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
199 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
200
201 qXfer:features:read:
202 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
203 features.
204
205 qXfer:spu:read:
206 qXfer:spu:write:
207 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
208 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
209
210 qXfer:libraries:read:
211 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
212 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
213 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
214 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
215
216 * Removed targets
217
218 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
219
220 alpha*-*-osf1*
221 alpha*-*-osf2*
222 d10v-*-*
223 hppa*-*-hiux*
224 i[34567]86-ncr-*
225 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
226 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
227 i[34567]86-*-netware*
228 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
229 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
230 i[34567]86-*-sco*
231 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
232 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
233 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
234 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
235 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
236 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
237 i[34567]86-*-isc*
238 m68*-cisco*-*
239 m68*-tandem-*
240 mips*-*-pe
241 rs6000-*-lynxos*
242 sh*-*-pe
243
244 * Other removed features
245
246 target abug
247 target cpu32bug
248 target est
249 target rom68k
250
251 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
252
253 target hms
254 target e7000
255 target sh3
256 target sh3e
257
258 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
259 H8/300.
260
261 target ocd
262
263 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
264 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
265 interfaces.
266
267 DWARF 1 support
268
269 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
270 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
271
272 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
273
274 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
275 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
276 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
277 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
278
279 MIPS ".pdr" sections
280
281 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
282 in debugging information.
283
284 Scheme support
285
286 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
287 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
288
289 set mips stack-arg-size
290 set mips saved-gpreg-size
291
292 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
293
294 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
295
296 * New targets
297
298 Xtensa xtensa-elf
299 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
300
301 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
302 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
303 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
304
305 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
306 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
307 supported.
308
309 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
310 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
311
312 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
313 stub provides the required support.
314
315 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
316 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
317
318 * New commands
319
320 set substitute-path
321 unset substitute-path
322 show substitute-path
323 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
324 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
325 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
326 between compilation and debugging.
327
328 set trace-commands
329 show trace-commands
330 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
331 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
332 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
333
334 * REMOVED features
335
336 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
337
338 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
339 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
340
341 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
342
343 * New remote packets
344
345 qSupported:
346 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
347 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
348 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
349 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
350 target.
351
352 qXfer:auxv:read:
353 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
354 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
355
356 qXfer:memory-map:read:
357 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
358 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
359
360 vFlashErase:
361 vFlashWrite:
362 vFlashDone:
363 Erase and program a flash memory device.
364
365 * Removed remote packets
366
367 qPart:auxv:read:
368 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
369 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
370
371 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
372
373 * New targets
374
375 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
376
377 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
378
379 * New commands
380
381 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
382 only if it doesn't already have a value.
383
384 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
385
386 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
387
388 restart <n> Return the program state to a
389 previously saved state.
390
391 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
392
393 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
394
395 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
396 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
397
398 info forks List forks of the user program that
399 are available to be debugged.
400
401 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
402 forks of the user program that are
403 available to be debugged.
404
405 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
406 that are available to be debugged (and
407 kill the forked process).
408
409 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
410 that are available to be debugged (and
411 allow the process to continue).
412
413 * New architecture
414
415 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
416
417 * Improved Windows host support
418
419 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
420 native console support, and remote communications using either
421 network sockets or serial ports.
422
423 * Improved Modula-2 language support
424
425 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
426 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
427 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
428 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
429 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
430 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
431
432 * REMOVED features
433
434 The ARM rdi-share module.
435
436 The Netware NLM debug server.
437
438 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
439
440 * New native configurations
441
442 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
443 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
444
445 * New targets
446
447 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
448
449 * New command line options
450
451 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
452 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
453 the child (debugged) program exited with.
454 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
455 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
456 specified multiple times and in conjunction
457 with the --command (-x) option.
458
459 * Deprecated commands removed
460
461 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
462 removed:
463
464 Command Replacement
465 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
466 othernames set arm disassembler
467 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
468 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
469 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
470 regs info registers
471
472 * New BSD user-level threads support
473
474 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
475 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
476 configurations are:
477
478 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
479 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
480 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
481
482 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
483 are not yet supported.
484
485 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
486 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
487
488 * REMOVED configurations and files
489
490 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
491 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
492 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
493
494 * New "set print array-indexes" command
495
496 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
497 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
498 behavior.
499
500 * VAX floating point support
501
502 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
503
504 * User-defined command support
505
506 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
507 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
508 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
509
510 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
511
512 * New command line option
513
514 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
515 debugging.
516
517 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
518
519 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
520 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
521 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
522 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
523 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
524
525 * Internationalization
526
527 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
528 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
529 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
530
531 * Ada
532
533 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
534 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
535 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
536
537 * New native configurations
538
539 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
540
541 * Remote 'p' packet
542
543 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
544 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
545
546 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
547
548 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
549 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
550 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
551 i386 application).
552
553 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
554 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
555 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
556 configurations:
557
558 hppa-*-hpux
559 ia64-*-aix
560 mips-*-irix*
561 *-*-lynx
562 mips-*-linux-gnu
563 sds protocol
564 xdr protocol
565 powerpc bdm protocol
566
567 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
568 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
569
570 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
571
572 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
573 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
574 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
575 permanently REMOVED.
576
577 h8300-*-*
578 mcore-*-*
579 mn10300-*-*
580 ns32k-*-*
581 sh64-*-*
582 v850-*-*
583
584 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
585
586 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
587
588 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
589 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
590 been fixed.
591
592 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
593
594 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
595 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
596 IRIX long double values).
597
598 * VAX and "next"
599
600 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
601 command. This problem has been fixed.
602
603 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
604
605 * Fix for ``many threads''
606
607 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
608 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
609 error message:
610
611 ptrace: No such process.
612 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
613
614 This problem has been fixed.
615
616 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
617
618 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
619 GDB to dump core).
620
621 * New ``start'' command.
622
623 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
624
625 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
626
627 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
628 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
629 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
630
631 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
632 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
633 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
634 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
635 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
636 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
637 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
638 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
639 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
640
641 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
642
643 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
644 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
645 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
646 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
647 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
648
649 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
650 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
651 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
652
653 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
654
655 * New native configurations
656
657 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
658 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
659 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
660 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
661 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
662 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
663 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
664
665 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
666
667 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
668 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
669 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
670 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
671 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
672 work, was also included.
673
674 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
675 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
676
677 h8300-*-*
678 mcore-*-*
679 mn10300-*-*
680 ns32k-*-*
681 sh64-*-*
682 v850-*-*
683 xstormy16-*-*
684
685 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
686 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
687
688 * REMOVED configurations and files
689
690 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
691 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
692 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
693 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
694 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
695 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
696 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
697 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
698 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
699 sonymips mips-sony-*
700 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
701
702 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
703
704 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
705
706 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
707 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
708 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
709 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
710 with GDB".
711
712 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
713
714 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
715 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
716 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
717 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
718 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
719 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
720 are created.
721
722 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
723
724 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
725
726 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
727 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
728 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
729
730 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
731
732 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
733 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
734
735 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
736
737 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
738 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
739 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
740
741 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
742
743 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
744 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
745
746 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
747
748 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
749 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
750 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
751
752 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
753
754 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
755 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
756 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
757
758 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
759
760 * Removed --with-mmalloc
761
762 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
763 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
764
765 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
766
767 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
768 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
769 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
770 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
771
772 * Revised SPARC target
773
774 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
775 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
776 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
777 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
778 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
779
780 * New C++ demangler
781
782 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
783 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
784 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
785 programs.
786
787 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
788
789 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
790 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
791 encountered these.
792
793 * C++ nested types and namespaces
794
795 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
796 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
797 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
798 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
799 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
800 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
801 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
802 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
803 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
804
805 * New native configurations
806
807 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
808 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
809 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
810 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
811 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
812
813 * New debugging protocols
814
815 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
816
817 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
818
819 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
820 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
821 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
822
823 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
824
825 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
826 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
827 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
828 permanently REMOVED.
829
830 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
831 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
832 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
833 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
834 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
835 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
836 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
837 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
838 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
839 sonymips mips-sony-*
840 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
841
842 * REMOVED configurations and files
843
844 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
845 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
846 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
847 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
848 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
849 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
850 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
851 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
852 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
853 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
854 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
855 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
856 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
857 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
858 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
859 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
860 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
861
862 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
863
864 * Objective-C
865
866 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
867 integrated into GDB.
868
869 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
870
871 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
872 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
873 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
874 backtraces.
875
876 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
877 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
878 DWARF 2 CFI support.
879
880 * Hosted file I/O.
881
882 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
883 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
884 remote protocol documentation for details.
885
886 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
887
888 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
889 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
890 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
891 ppc32 on ppc64).
892
893 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
894
895 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
896 per-thread variables.
897
898 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
899
900 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
901 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
902
903 * Separate debug info.
904
905 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
906 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
907 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
908 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
909 and optional debug files.
910
911 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
912
913 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
914 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
915 debugger.
916
917 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
918 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
919
920 * Java
921
922 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
923 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
924 considered "useable".
925
926 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
927
928 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
929 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
930 kernel.
931
932 * GDB supports logging output to a file
933
934 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
935 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
936
937 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
938
939 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
940 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
941 command.
942
943 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
944
945 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
946 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
947
948 * Profiling support
949
950 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
951 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
952 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
953 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
954 data, for more informative profiling results.
955
956 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
957
958 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
959 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
960 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
961
962 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
963 removed.
964
965 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
966 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
967 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
968 in a subsequent -var-update.
969
970 * New native configurations.
971
972 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
973
974 * Multi-arched targets.
975
976 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
977 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
978
979 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
980
981 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
982 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
983 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
984 permanently REMOVED.
985
986 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
987 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
988 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
989 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
990 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
991 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
992 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
993 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
994 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
995 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
996 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
997 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
998
999 * REMOVED configurations and files
1000
1001 V850EA ISA
1002 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1003 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1004 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1005 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1006 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1007 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1008 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1009 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1010 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1011 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1012 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1013 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1014 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1015
1016 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1017
1018 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1019 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1020 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1021 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1022 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1023
1024 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1025
1026 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1027
1028 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1029 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1030 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1031 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1032 shared libs like mad''.
1033
1034 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1035
1036 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1037 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1038 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1039 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1040
1041 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1042
1043 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1044 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1045 they expand.
1046
1047 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1048 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1049
1050 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1051 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1052
1053 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1054 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1055 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1056 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1057
1058 * Multi-arched targets.
1059
1060 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1061 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1062 NEC V850 v850-*-*
1063 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1064 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1065 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1066
1067 * New targets.
1068
1069 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1070
1071
1072 * New native configurations
1073
1074 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1075 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1076 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1077 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1078
1079 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1080
1081 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1082 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1083 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1084 permanently REMOVED.
1085
1086 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1087 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1088 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1089 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1090 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1091 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1092 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1093 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1094 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1095 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1096 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1097 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1098 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1099
1100 * OBSOLETE languages
1101
1102 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1103
1104 * REMOVED configurations and files
1105
1106 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1107 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1108 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1109 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1110 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1111
1112 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1113
1114 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1115
1116 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1117 commands. The default is 1024.
1118
1119 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1120
1121 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1122
1123 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1124
1125 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1126 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1127 from a file into memory (restore).
1128
1129 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1130
1131 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1132 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1133 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1134
1135 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1136
1137 * New targets.
1138
1139 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1140
1141 * Bug fixes
1142
1143 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1144 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1145 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1146
1147 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1148 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1149 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1150
1151 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1152 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1153 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1154
1155 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1156 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1157 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1158
1159 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1160
1161 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1162
1163 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1164 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1165 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1166 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1167 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1168 (notably embedded) targets.
1169
1170 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1171
1172 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1173 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1174 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1175 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1176
1177 * New command line option
1178
1179 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1180
1181 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1182
1183 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1184 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1185 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1186 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1187 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1188 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1189 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1190 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1191 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1192 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1193
1194 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1195
1196 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1197 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1198
1199 * New native configurations
1200
1201 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1202 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1203 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1204 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1205
1206 * New targets
1207
1208 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1209
1210 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1211
1212 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1213 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1214 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1215 permanently REMOVED.
1216
1217 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1218 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1219 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1220 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1221 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1222
1223 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1224
1225 * REMOVED configurations and files
1226
1227 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1228 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1229 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1230 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1231 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1232 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1233 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1234 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1235 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1236 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1237 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1238 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1239 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1240
1241 * Changes to command line processing
1242
1243 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1244 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1245
1246 * Changes to key bindings
1247
1248 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1249
1250 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1251
1252 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1253
1254 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1255 corrupted.
1256
1257 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1258
1259 Numerous documentation fixes.
1260
1261 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1262
1263 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1264
1265 * New native configurations
1266
1267 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1268 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1269 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1270 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1271 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1272 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1273
1274 * New targets
1275
1276 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1277 CRIS cris-axis
1278 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1279
1280 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1281
1282 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1283 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1284 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1285 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1286 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1287 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1288 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1289 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1290 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1291 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1292 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1293 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1294 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1295 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1296
1297 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1298 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1299
1300 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1301 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1302 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1303 permanently REMOVED.
1304
1305 * REMOVED configurations and files
1306
1307 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1308 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1309 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1310 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1311 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
1312 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
1313
1314 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1315
1316 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1317 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1318 present.
1319
1320 * Other news:
1321
1322 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1323
1324 * The MI enabled by default.
1325
1326 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1327 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1328 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1329 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1330 which is now deprecated.
1331
1332 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1333
1334 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1335 main features are supported:
1336
1337 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1338
1339 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1340 extension;
1341
1342 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1343
1344 - a Pascal expression parser.
1345
1346 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1347
1348 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1349
1350 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1351
1352 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1353 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1354
1355 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1356
1357 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1358
1359 * Changes in completion.
1360
1361 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1362 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1363 users expect at the shell prompt.
1364
1365 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1366 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1367 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1368 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1369 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1370 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1371 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1372
1373 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1374
1375 * New platform-independent commands:
1376
1377 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1378 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1379 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1380
1381 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1382
1383 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1384 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1385 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1386
1387 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1388
1389 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1390 multi-threaded programs though.
1391
1392 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1393
1394 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1395
1396 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1397 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1398 supported.)
1399
1400 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1401
1402 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1403 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1404 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1405 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1406 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1407 registers.
1408
1409 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1410 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1411 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1412
1413 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1414
1415 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1416 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1417
1418 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1419 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1420 IDT.
1421
1422 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1423 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1424 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1425 a given linear address.
1426
1427 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1428 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1429 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1430
1431 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1432
1433 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1434
1435 * Changes in documentation.
1436
1437 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1438 Documentation License.
1439
1440 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1441 manual.
1442
1443 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1444
1445 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1446 manual.
1447
1448 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1449 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1450 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1451
1452 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1453
1454 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1455 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1456 contents of this file.
1457
1458 * gdba.el deleted
1459
1460 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1461
1462 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1463
1464 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1465
1466 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1467 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1468 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1469 greater level of detail.
1470
1471 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1472
1473 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1474 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1475 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1476 written.
1477
1478 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1479
1480 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1481 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1482 machines ``out of the box''.
1483
1484 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1485 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1486 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1487 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1488 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1489
1490 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1491 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1492 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1493 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1494 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1495
1496 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1497 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1498 also works.
1499
1500 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1501 GDB.
1502
1503 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1504 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1505 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1506 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1507
1508 * New native configurations
1509
1510 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1511 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1512
1513 * New targets
1514
1515 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1516 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1517 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1518 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1519
1520 * OBSOLETE configurations
1521
1522 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1523 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1524 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1525 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1526 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
1527
1528 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1529 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1530 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1531 be permanently REMOVED.
1532
1533 * Gould support removed
1534
1535 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1536
1537 * New features for SVR4
1538
1539 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1540 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1541 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1542
1543 * Many C++ enhancements
1544
1545 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1546 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1547
1548 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1549
1550 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1551 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1552 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1553 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1554
1555 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1556 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1557
1558 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1559
1560 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1561 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1562 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1563
1564 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1565 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1566
1567 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1568
1569 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1570 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1571 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1572
1573 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1574
1575 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1576 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1577 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1578
1579 * ``apropos'' command added.
1580
1581 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1582 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1583 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1584
1585 * New MI interface
1586
1587 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1588 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1589 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1590 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1591 enabled by configuring with:
1592
1593 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1594
1595 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1596
1597 * New native configurations
1598
1599 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1600 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1601 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1602
1603 * New targets
1604
1605 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1606 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1607 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1608
1609 * OBSOLETE configurations
1610
1611 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1612
1613 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1614 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1615 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1616 be permanently REMOVED.
1617
1618 * ANSI/ISO C
1619
1620 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1621 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1622 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1623 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1624 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1625 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1626 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1627 already.
1628
1629 * Readline 2.2
1630
1631 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1632
1633 * set extension-language
1634
1635 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1636 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1637 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1638 set extension-language .c c++
1639 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1640 and their associated languages.
1641
1642 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1643
1644 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1645 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1646 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1647
1648 set processor NAME
1649
1650 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1651 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1652
1653 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1654 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1655 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1656 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1657 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1658 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1659 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1660 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1661 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1662 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1663 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1664
1665 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1666 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1667 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1668 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1669
1670 * HP-UX support
1671
1672 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1673 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1674 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1675 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1676 for xdb and dbx commands.
1677
1678 * Catchpoints
1679
1680 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1681 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1682 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1683
1684 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1685 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1686 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1687
1688 * Debugging across forks
1689
1690 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1691 in the inferior.
1692
1693 * TUI
1694
1695 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1696 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1697 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1698
1699 * GDB remote protocol additions
1700
1701 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1702 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1703 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1704 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1705
1706 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1707 full 64-bit address. The command
1708
1709 set remoteaddresssize 32
1710
1711 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1712 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1713 will be discarded.
1714
1715 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1716 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1717
1718 maint packet heythere
1719
1720 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1721 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1722 time.
1723
1724 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1725 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1726 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1727
1728 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1729
1730 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1731 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1732 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1733
1734 * mask-address variable for Mips
1735
1736 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1737 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1738 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1739
1740 * Higher serial baud rates
1741
1742 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1743 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1744 to achieve all of these rates.)
1745
1746 * i960 simulator
1747
1748 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1749 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1750
1751
1752 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1753
1754 * New native configurations
1755
1756 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1757 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1758 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1759 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1760 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1761 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1762 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1763
1764 * New targets
1765
1766 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1767 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1768 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1769 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1770 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1771 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1772 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1773 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1774 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1775 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1776 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1777
1778 * New debugging protocols
1779
1780 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1781 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1782 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1783 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1784 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1785 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1786
1787 * DWARF 2
1788
1789 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1790 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1791 information.
1792
1793 * Java frontend
1794
1795 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1796 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1797
1798 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1799
1800 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1801 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1802 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1803
1804 * Live range splitting
1805
1806 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1807 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1808 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1809
1810 * Hurd support
1811
1812 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1813 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1814
1815 * ARM Thumb support
1816
1817 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1818 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1819 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1820 accordingly.
1821
1822 * MIPS16 support
1823
1824 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1825 instruction set.
1826
1827 * Overlay support
1828
1829 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1830 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1831 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1832 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1833 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1834 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1835
1836 * info symbol
1837
1838 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1839 the symbol at the specified address.
1840
1841 * Trace support
1842
1843 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1844 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1845 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1846 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1847 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1848
1849 * MIPS simulator
1850
1851 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1852 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1853 of most MIPS variants.
1854
1855 * Sparc simulator
1856
1857 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1858 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1859 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1860
1861 * set architecture
1862
1863 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1864 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1865 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1866 the possible architectures.
1867
1868 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1869
1870 * New native configurations
1871
1872 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1873 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1874 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1875 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1876 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1877 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1878
1879 * New targets
1880
1881 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1882 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1883 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1884 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1885 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1886 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1887 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1888
1889 * PowerPC simulator
1890
1891 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1892 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1893 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1894 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1895 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1896
1897 * Solaris 2.5
1898
1899 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1900
1901 * Windows 95/NT native
1902
1903 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1904 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1905 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1906 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1907 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1908
1909 * dont-repeat command
1910
1911 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1912 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1913 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1914 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1915
1916 * Send break instead of ^C
1917
1918 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1919 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1920 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1921
1922 * Remote protocol timeout
1923
1924 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1925 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1926 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1927
1928 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1929
1930 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1931 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1932 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1933 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1934 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1935
1936 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1937 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1938 automatically on hpux10.
1939
1940 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1941
1942 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1943
1944 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1945
1946 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1947 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1948 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1949 every character. The default value is 1050.
1950
1951 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1952
1953 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1954 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1955 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1956 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1957 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1958 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1959
1960 * Speedups for remote debugging
1961
1962 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1963 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1964 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1965
1966 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1967
1968 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1969 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1970
1971 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1972
1973 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1974
1975 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1976 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1977
1978 * Remote targets use caching
1979
1980 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1981 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1982 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1983 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1984 off' turns the the data cache off.
1985
1986 * Remote targets may have threads
1987
1988 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1989 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1990 gdb/remote.c for details.
1991
1992 * NetROM support
1993
1994 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1995 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1996 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1997 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1998 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1999 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2000 sequence is something like
2001
2002 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2003 load <prog>
2004 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2005
2006 * Macintosh host
2007
2008 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2009 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2010 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2011 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2012 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2013 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2014 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2015 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2016
2017 * Autoconf
2018
2019 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2020 but does simplify configuration and building.
2021
2022 * hpux10
2023
2024 GDB now supports hpux10.
2025
2026 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2027
2028 * New native configurations
2029
2030 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2031 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2032 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2033 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2034
2035 * New targets
2036
2037 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2038 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2039 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2040 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2041 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2042
2043 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2044
2045 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2046 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2047 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2048 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2049 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2050
2051 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2052
2053 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2054 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2055 trivial example:
2056 define adder
2057 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2058
2059 To execute the command use:
2060 adder 1 2 3
2061
2062 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2063 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2064 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2065
2066 * New `if' and `while' commands
2067
2068 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2069 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2070 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2071 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2072 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2073 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2074 if the expression is zero.
2075
2076 * Fortran source language mode
2077
2078 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2079 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2080 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2081 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2082 Fortran compilers.
2083
2084 * Better HPUX support
2085
2086 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2087 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2088 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2089 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2090 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2091
2092 adb -w a.out
2093 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2094 control-d
2095
2096 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2097 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2098
2099 adb -w a.out
2100 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2101 control-d
2102
2103 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2104 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2105 external linkage.
2106
2107 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2108 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2109
2110 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2111
2112 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2113 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2114 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2115 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2116 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2117 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2118
2119 * New DOS host serial code
2120
2121 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2122 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2123 a PC's serial port.
2124
2125 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2126
2127 * New "complete" command
2128
2129 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2130 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2131
2132 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2133
2134 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2135 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2136
2137 * Breakpoint hit counts
2138
2139 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2140 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2141 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2142 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2143 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2144 that breakpoint.
2145
2146 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2147
2148 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2149 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2150 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2151
2152 * Shared library breakpoints
2153
2154 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2155 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2156
2157 * Hardware watchpoints
2158
2159 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2160 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2161
2162 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2163
2164 * Annotations
2165
2166 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2167 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2168
2169 * Improved Irix 5 support
2170
2171 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2172
2173 * Improved HPPA support
2174
2175 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2176
2177 * New native configurations
2178
2179 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2180 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2181 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2182 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2183
2184 * New targets
2185
2186 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2187 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2188 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2189
2190 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2191
2192 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2193 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2194
2195 * Fixes
2196
2197 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2198 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2199
2200 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2201
2202 * Irix 5 is now supported
2203
2204 * HPPA support
2205
2206 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2207 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2208 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2209 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2210 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2211
2212
2213 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2214
2215 * User visible changes:
2216
2217 * Remote Debugging
2218
2219 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2220 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2221 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2222 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2223 debugging info for the mips target).
2224
2225 * DEC Alpha native support
2226
2227 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2228 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2229 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2230 Alpha-specific notes.
2231
2232 * Preliminary thread implementation
2233
2234 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2235
2236 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2237
2238 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2239 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2240 for details).
2241
2242 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2243
2244 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2245 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2246 call methods, ...etc.
2247
2248 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2249
2250 * User visible changes:
2251
2252 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2253 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2254 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2255 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2256
2257 Filename completion now works.
2258
2259 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2260 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2261 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2262
2263 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2264 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2265 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2266 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2267 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2268
2269 * DEC alpha support
2270
2271 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2272 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2273
2274
2275 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2276
2277 * Testsuite
2278
2279 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2280 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2281 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2282
2283 * C++ demangling
2284
2285 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2286 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2287 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2288 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2289 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2290
2291 * Simulators
2292
2293 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2294 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2295 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2296
2297 * New targets supported
2298
2299 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2300 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2301 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2302 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2303 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2304
2305 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2306 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2307 GO32 memory extender.
2308
2309 * New remote protocols
2310
2311 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2312
2313 * New source languages supported
2314
2315 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2316 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2317 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2318
2319
2320 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2321
2322 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2323
2324 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2325 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2326 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2327 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2328 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2329 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2330
2331 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2332
2333 * Faster and better demangling
2334
2335 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2336 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2337 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2338 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2339 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2340 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2341 symbol lookups.
2342
2343 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2344 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2345 compiler does not actually implement.
2346
2347 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2348
2349 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2350 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2351 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2352 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2353 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2354 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2355 fix.
2356
2357 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2358 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2359
2360 * Improved configure script
2361
2362 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2363 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2364 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2365 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2366
2367 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2368 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2369 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2370 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2371 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2372 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2373
2374 * Documentation improvements
2375
2376 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2377 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2378 before submitting changes.
2379
2380 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2381 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2382 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2383 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2384 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2385
2386 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2387 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2388 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2389 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2390 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2391 around this problem.
2392
2393 * New features
2394
2395 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2396 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2397 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2398 the target program.
2399
2400 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2401 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2402
2403 * New native hosts supported
2404
2405 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2406 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2407
2408 * New targets supported
2409
2410 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2411
2412 * New file formats supported
2413
2414 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2415 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2416
2417 * Major bug fixes
2418
2419 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2420
2421 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2422 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2423
2424 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2425 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2426 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2427
2428 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2429 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2430
2431 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2432 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2433 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2434 libraries.
2435
2436 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2437 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2438 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2439 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2440 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2441
2442 * Internal improvements
2443
2444 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2445 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2446
2447 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2448 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2449 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2450 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2451 shared code that handles any of them.
2452
2453 * New command line options
2454
2455 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2456
2457 * Mmalloc licensing
2458
2459 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2460 General Public License.
2461
2462 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2463
2464 * Host/native/target split
2465
2466 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2467 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2468 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2469 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2470 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2471
2472 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2473 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2474 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2475 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2476 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2477 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2478 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2479
2480 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2481 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2482 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2483
2484 * New hosts supported
2485
2486 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2487 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2488 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2489
2490 * New targets supported
2491
2492 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2493 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2494
2495 * New native hosts supported
2496
2497 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2498 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2499 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2500
2501 * New file formats supported
2502
2503 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2504 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2505 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2506
2507 * New commands
2508
2509 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2510 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2511 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2512
2513 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2514
2515 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2516 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2517 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2518 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2519
2520 * C++ improvements
2521
2522 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2523 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2524 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2525
2526 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2527
2528 * Major bug fixes
2529
2530 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2531 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2532 by the compiler.
2533
2534 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2535 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2536
2537 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2538 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2539 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2540 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2541 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2542 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2543
2544 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2545 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2546 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2547 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2548
2549 * AMD 29k support
2550
2551 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2552 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2553 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2554 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2555 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2556
2557 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2558 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2559 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2560 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2561
2562 * Remote interfaces
2563
2564 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2565 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2566 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2567 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2568 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2569 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2570 each instruction being stepped through.
2571
2572 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2573 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2574
2575 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2576 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2577 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2578 processor with a serial port.
2579
2580 * Configuration
2581
2582 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2583 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2584 supported, and what files each one uses.
2585
2586 * Library changes
2587
2588 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2589 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2590 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2591 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2592
2593 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2594 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2595 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2596 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2597
2598 * Documentation
2599
2600 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2601 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2602 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2603 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2604 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2605 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2606
2607 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2608
2609
2610 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2611
2612 * Better support for C++ function names
2613
2614 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2615 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2616 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2617 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2618 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2619
2620 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2621 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2622 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2623 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2624 for the list of formats.
2625
2626 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2627
2628 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2629 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2630 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2631 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2632 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2633 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2634 this problem.)
2635
2636 * New 'maintenance' command
2637
2638 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2639 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2640 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2641
2642 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2643 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2644 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2645 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2646 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2647 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2648
2649 The following commands are new:
2650
2651 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2652 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2653 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2654
2655 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2656
2657 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2658 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2659 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2660 read after argv processing.
2661
2662 * New hosts supported
2663
2664 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2665
2666 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2667
2668 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2669 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2670 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2671 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2672 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2673 It costs extra.
2674
2675 * New targets supported
2676
2677 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2678
2679 * More smarts about finding #include files
2680
2681 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2682 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2683 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2684 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2685 the one that contains your sources.
2686
2687 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2688 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2689 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2690
2691 * Interesting infernals change
2692
2693 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2694 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2695 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2696 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2697
2698 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2699
2700 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2701 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2702 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2703
2704 See the ChangeLog for details.
2705
2706 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2707
2708 * New machines supported (host and target)
2709
2710 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2711
2712 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2713
2714 * New malloc package
2715
2716 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2717 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2718 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2719 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2720 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2721 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2722
2723 * info proc
2724
2725 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2726 'help info proc' for details.
2727
2728 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2729
2730 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2731 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2732 possible.
2733
2734 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2735
2736 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2737 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2738 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2739 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2740 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2741 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2742
2743 * Cross byte order fixes
2744
2745 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2746 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2747
2748 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2749
2750 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2751 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2752 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2753 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2754 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2755 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2756 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2757 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2758 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2759 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2760
2761 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2762 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2763 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2764 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2765
2766 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2767 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2768 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2769 use is:
2770
2771 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2772
2773 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2774 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2775 shared across multiple host platforms.
2776
2777 * longjmp() handling
2778
2779 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2780 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2781 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2782 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2783
2784 * Solaris 2.0
2785
2786 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2787 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2788 reading symbols.
2789
2790 * Bug fixes
2791
2792 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2793 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2794 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2795
2796 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2797
2798 * New machines supported (host and target)
2799
2800 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2801 (except core files)
2802 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2803 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2804
2805 * New machines supported (target)
2806
2807 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2808
2809 * C++ support
2810
2811 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2812 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2813 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2814
2815 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2816 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2817 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2818 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2819 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2820 released.
2821
2822 * New features for SVR4
2823
2824 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2825 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2826 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2827
2828 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2829 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2830 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2831
2832 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2833 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2834
2835 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2836
2837 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2838 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2839 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2840 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2841 same code linked statically.
2842
2843 * New Getopt
2844
2845 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2846 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2847 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2848 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2849 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2850 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2851
2852 * Bugs fixed
2853
2854 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2855 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2856 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2857
2858
2859 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2860
2861 * New machines supported (host and target)
2862
2863 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2864 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2865 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2866
2867 * Almost SCO Unix support
2868
2869 We had hoped to support:
2870 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2871 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2872 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2873 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2874
2875 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2876
2877 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2878 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2879 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2880 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2881 reqired (if any).
2882
2883 * New Readline
2884
2885 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2886 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2887 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2888
2889 * Bugs fixed
2890
2891 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2892 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2893 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2894
2895 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2896
2897 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2898 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2899 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2900
2901 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2902 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2903 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2904 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2905 version 2.
2906
2907 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2908 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2909 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2910 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2911 situation somewhat.
2912
2913 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2914 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2915 methods.
2916
2917 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2918 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2919 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2920
2921
2922 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2923
2924 * Improved configuration
2925
2926 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2927 Porting BFD is simpler.
2928
2929 * Stepping improved
2930
2931 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2932 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2933 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2934 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2935
2936 * Bug fixing
2937
2938 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2939
2940 * New host supported (not target)
2941
2942 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2943
2944
2945 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2946
2947 * Multiple source language support
2948
2949 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2950 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2951 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2952 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2953 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2954 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2955
2956 * GDB and Modula-2
2957
2958 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2959 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2960 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2961 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2962
2963 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2964 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2965 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2966
2967 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2968 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2969
2970 * set write on/off
2971
2972 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2973 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2974 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2975 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2976 effect immediately.
2977
2978 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2979
2980 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2981 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2982 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2983 examining core files.
2984
2985 * set listsize
2986
2987 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2988 The default is 10.
2989
2990 * New machines supported (host and target)
2991
2992 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2993 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2994 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2995
2996 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2997
2998 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2999
3000 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3001
3002 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3003 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3004 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3005
3006 * New remote interfaces
3007
3008 AMD 29000 Adapt
3009 AMD 29000 Minimon
3010
3011
3012 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3013
3014 * New Facilities
3015
3016 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3017
3018 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3019 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3020 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3021 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3022 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3023 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3024 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3025 stub on the target system.
3026
3027 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3028
3029 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3030 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3031 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3032
3033 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3034 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3035
3036
3037 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3038
3039 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3040 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3041
3042 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3043 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3044 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3045
3046 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3047 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3048 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3049 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3050
3051 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3052 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3053 it is already running. Default is ON.
3054
3055 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3056 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3057 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3058 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3059 Default is ON.
3060
3061 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3062 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3063 or the value of the environment variable
3064 GDBHISTFILE.
3065
3066 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3067 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3068 HISTSIZE.
3069
3070 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3071 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3072 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3073
3074 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3075 history expansion will be performed on
3076 command line input. The default is OFF.
3077
3078 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3079 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3080 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3081
3082 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3083 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3084 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3085 variable TERM.
3086
3087 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3088 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3089 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3090 variable TERM.
3091
3092 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3093 ``set width'' instead.
3094
3095 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3096 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3097 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3098 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3099
3100 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3101 is OFF.
3102
3103 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3104 "raw" form if off.
3105
3106 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3107 like instructions.
3108
3109 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3110
3111
3112 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3113
3114 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3115 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3116 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3117 window.
3118
3119
3120 * Support for Shared Libraries
3121
3122 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3123 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3124 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3125 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3126 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3127 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3128 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3129 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3130
3131 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3132 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3133 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3134
3135 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3136
3137
3138 * Watchpoints
3139
3140 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3141 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3142 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3143 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3144 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3145 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3146
3147 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3148
3149 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3150
3151 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3152 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3153 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3154
3155
3156 * C++ multiple inheritance
3157
3158 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3159 for C++ programs.
3160
3161 * C++ exception handling
3162
3163 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3164 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3165 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3166 handler's context).
3167
3168 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3169 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3170 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3171
3172 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3173 current stack frame.
3174
3175
3176 * Minor command changes
3177
3178 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3179 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3180 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3181
3182 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3183 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3184 frames without printing.
3185
3186 * New directory command
3187
3188 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3189 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3190 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3191 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3192 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3193
3194 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3195
3196 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3197 for more details.
3198
3199 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3200 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3201 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3202 where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 0.094939 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.