1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.0:
6 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
10 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
13 * New native configurations
15 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
16 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
17 MIPS Linux mips*-*-linux*
21 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
26 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
27 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
28 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
29 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
30 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
32 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
33 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
34 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
35 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
36 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
37 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
38 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
39 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
41 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
42 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
44 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
45 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
46 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
49 * REMOVED configurations and files
51 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
54 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
60 * All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
62 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
64 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
66 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
67 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
68 contents of this file.
72 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
74 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
76 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
78 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
79 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
80 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
81 greater level of detail.
83 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
85 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
86 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
87 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
90 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
92 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
93 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
94 machines ``out of the box''.
96 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
97 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
98 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
99 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
100 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
102 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
103 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
104 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
105 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
106 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
108 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
109 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
112 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
115 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
116 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
117 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
118 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
120 * New native configurations
122 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
123 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
127 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
128 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
129 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
130 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
132 * OBSOLETE configurations
134 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
135 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
137 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
140 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
141 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
142 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
143 be permanently REMOVED.
145 * Gould support removed
147 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
149 * New features for SVR4
151 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
152 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
153 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
155 * Many C++ enhancements
157 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
158 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
160 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
162 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
163 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
164 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
165 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
167 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
168 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
170 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
172 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
173 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
174 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
176 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
177 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
179 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
181 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
182 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
183 include ``set remote P-packet''.
185 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
187 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
188 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
189 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
191 * ``apropos'' command added.
193 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
194 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
195 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
199 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
200 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
201 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
202 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
203 enabled by configuring with:
205 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
207 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
209 * New native configurations
211 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
212 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
213 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
217 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
218 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
219 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
221 * OBSOLETE configurations
223 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
225 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
226 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
227 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
228 be permanently REMOVED.
232 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
233 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
234 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
235 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
236 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
237 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
238 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
243 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
245 * set extension-language
247 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
248 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
249 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
250 set extension-language .c c++
251 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
252 and their associated languages.
254 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
256 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
257 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
258 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
262 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
263 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
265 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
266 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
268 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
269 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
270 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
271 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
272 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
273 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
274 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
275 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
277 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
278 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
279 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
280 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
284 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
285 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
286 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
287 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
288 for xdb and dbx commands.
292 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
293 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
294 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
296 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
297 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
298 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
300 * Debugging across forks
302 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
307 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
308 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
309 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
311 * GDB remote protocol additions
313 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
314 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
315 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
316 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
318 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
319 full 64-bit address. The command
321 set remoteaddresssize 32
323 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
324 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
327 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
328 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
330 maint packet heythere
332 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
333 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
336 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
337 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
338 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
340 * Tracing can collect general expressions
342 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
343 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
344 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
346 * mask-address variable for Mips
348 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
349 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
350 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
352 * Higher serial baud rates
354 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
355 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
356 to achieve all of these rates.)
360 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
361 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
364 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
366 * New native configurations
368 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
369 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
370 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
371 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
372 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
373 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
374 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
378 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
379 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
380 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
381 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
382 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
383 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
384 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
385 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
386 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
387 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
388 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
390 * New debugging protocols
392 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
393 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
394 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
395 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
396 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
397 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
401 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
402 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
407 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
408 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
410 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
412 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
413 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
414 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
416 * Live range splitting
418 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
419 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
420 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
424 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
425 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
429 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
430 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
431 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
436 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
441 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
442 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
443 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
444 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
445 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
446 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
450 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
451 the symbol at the specified address.
455 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
456 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
457 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
458 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
459 file tracepoint.c for more details.
463 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
464 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
465 of most MIPS variants.
469 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
470 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
471 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
475 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
476 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
477 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
478 the possible architectures.
480 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
482 * New native configurations
484 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
485 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
486 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
487 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
488 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
489 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
493 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
494 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
495 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
496 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
497 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
499 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
503 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
504 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
505 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
506 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
507 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
511 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
513 * Windows 95/NT native
515 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
516 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
517 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
518 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
519 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
521 * dont-repeat command
523 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
524 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
525 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
526 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
528 * Send break instead of ^C
530 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
531 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
532 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
534 * Remote protocol timeout
536 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
537 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
538 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
540 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
542 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
543 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
544 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
545 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
546 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
548 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
549 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
550 automatically on hpux10.
552 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
554 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
556 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
558 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
559 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
560 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
561 every character. The default value is 1050.
563 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
565 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
566 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
567 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
568 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
569 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
570 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
572 * Speedups for remote debugging
574 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
575 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
576 and more efficient S-record downloading.
578 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
580 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
581 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
583 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
587 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
588 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
590 * Remote targets use caching
592 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
593 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
594 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
595 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
596 off' turns the the data cache off.
598 * Remote targets may have threads
600 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
601 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
602 gdb/remote.c for details.
606 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
607 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
608 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
609 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
610 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
611 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
612 sequence is something like
614 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
616 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
620 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
621 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
622 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
623 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
624 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
625 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
626 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
627 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
631 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
632 but does simplify configuration and building.
636 GDB now supports hpux10.
638 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
640 * New native configurations
642 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
643 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
644 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
645 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
649 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
650 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
651 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
652 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
655 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
657 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
658 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
659 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
660 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
661 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
663 * Arguments to user-defined commands
665 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
666 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
669 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
671 To execute the command use:
674 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
675 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
676 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
678 * New `if' and `while' commands
680 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
681 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
682 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
683 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
684 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
685 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
686 if the expression is zero.
688 * Fortran source language mode
690 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
691 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
692 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
693 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
696 * Better HPUX support
698 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
699 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
700 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
701 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
702 that behavior do the following before running the program:
708 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
709 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
715 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
716 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
719 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
720 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
722 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
724 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
725 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
726 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
727 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
728 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
729 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
731 * New DOS host serial code
733 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
734 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
737 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
739 * New "complete" command
741 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
742 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
744 * Trailing space optional in prompt
746 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
747 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
749 * Breakpoint hit counts
751 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
752 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
753 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
754 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
755 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
758 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
760 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
761 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
762 arrays actually contain only short strings.
764 * Shared library breakpoints
766 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
767 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
769 * Hardware watchpoints
771 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
772 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
774 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
778 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
779 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
781 * Improved Irix 5 support
783 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
785 * Improved HPPA support
787 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
789 * New native configurations
791 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
792 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
793 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
794 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
798 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
799 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
802 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
804 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
805 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
809 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
810 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
812 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
814 * Irix 5 is now supported
818 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
819 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
820 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
821 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
822 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
825 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
827 * User visible changes:
831 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
832 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
833 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
834 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
835 debugging info for the mips target).
837 * DEC Alpha native support
839 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
840 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
841 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
842 Alpha-specific notes.
844 * Preliminary thread implementation
846 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
848 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
850 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
851 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
854 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
856 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
857 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
858 call methods, ...etc.
860 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
862 * User visible changes:
864 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
865 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
866 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
867 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
869 Filename completion now works.
871 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
872 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
873 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
875 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
876 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
877 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
878 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
879 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
883 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
884 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
887 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
891 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
892 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
893 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
897 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
898 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
899 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
900 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
901 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
905 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
906 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
907 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
909 * New targets supported
911 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
912 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
913 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
914 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
915 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
917 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
918 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
919 GO32 memory extender.
921 * New remote protocols
923 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
925 * New source languages supported
927 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
928 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
929 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
932 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
934 * HP Precision Architecture supported
936 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
937 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
938 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
939 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
940 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
941 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
943 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
945 * Faster and better demangling
947 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
948 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
949 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
950 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
951 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
952 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
955 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
956 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
957 compiler does not actually implement.
959 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
961 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
962 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
963 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
964 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
965 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
966 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
969 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
970 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
972 * Improved configure script
974 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
975 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
976 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
977 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
979 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
980 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
981 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
982 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
983 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
984 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
986 * Documentation improvements
988 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
989 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
990 before submitting changes.
992 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
993 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
994 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
995 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
996 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
998 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
999 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1000 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1001 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1002 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1003 around this problem.
1007 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1008 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1009 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1012 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1013 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1015 * New native hosts supported
1017 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1018 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1020 * New targets supported
1022 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1024 * New file formats supported
1026 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1027 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1031 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1033 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1034 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1036 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1037 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1038 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1040 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1041 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1043 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1044 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1045 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1048 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1049 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1050 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1051 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1052 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1054 * Internal improvements
1056 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1057 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1059 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1060 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1061 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1062 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1063 shared code that handles any of them.
1065 * New command line options
1067 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1071 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1072 General Public License.
1074 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1076 * Host/native/target split
1078 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1079 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1080 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1081 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1082 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1084 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1085 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1086 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1087 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1088 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1089 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1090 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1092 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1093 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1094 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1096 * New hosts supported
1098 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1099 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1100 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1102 * New targets supported
1104 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1105 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1107 * New native hosts supported
1109 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1110 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1111 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1113 * New file formats supported
1115 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1116 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1117 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1121 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1122 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1123 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1125 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1127 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1128 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1129 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1130 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1134 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1135 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1136 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1138 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1142 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1143 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1146 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1147 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1149 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1150 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1151 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1152 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1153 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1154 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1156 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1157 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1158 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1159 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1163 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1164 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1165 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1166 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1167 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1169 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1170 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1171 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1172 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1176 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1177 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1178 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1179 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1180 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1181 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1182 each instruction being stepped through.
1184 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1185 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1187 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1188 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1189 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1190 processor with a serial port.
1194 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1195 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1196 supported, and what files each one uses.
1200 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1201 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1202 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1203 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1205 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1206 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1207 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1208 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1212 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1213 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1214 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1215 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1216 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1217 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1219 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1222 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1224 * Better support for C++ function names
1226 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1227 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1228 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1229 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1230 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1232 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1233 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1234 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1235 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1236 for the list of formats.
1238 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1240 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1241 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1242 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1243 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1244 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1245 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1248 * New 'maintenance' command
1250 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1251 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1252 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1254 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1255 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1256 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1257 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1258 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1259 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1261 The following commands are new:
1263 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1264 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1265 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1267 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1269 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1270 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1271 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1272 read after argv processing.
1274 * New hosts supported
1276 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1278 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1280 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1281 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1282 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1283 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1284 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1287 * New targets supported
1289 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1291 * More smarts about finding #include files
1293 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1294 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1295 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1296 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1297 the one that contains your sources.
1299 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1300 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1301 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1303 * Interesting infernals change
1305 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1306 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1307 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1308 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1310 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1312 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1313 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1314 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1316 See the ChangeLog for details.
1318 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1320 * New machines supported (host and target)
1322 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1324 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1326 * New malloc package
1328 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1329 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1330 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1331 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1332 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1333 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1337 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1338 'help info proc' for details.
1340 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1342 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1343 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1346 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1348 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1349 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1350 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1351 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1352 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1353 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1355 * Cross byte order fixes
1357 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1358 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1360 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1362 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1363 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1364 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1365 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1366 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1367 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1368 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1369 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1370 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1371 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1373 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1374 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1375 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1376 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1378 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1379 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1380 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1383 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1385 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1386 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1387 shared across multiple host platforms.
1389 * longjmp() handling
1391 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1392 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1393 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1394 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1398 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1399 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1404 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1405 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1406 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1408 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1410 * New machines supported (host and target)
1412 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1414 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1415 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1417 * New machines supported (target)
1419 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1423 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1424 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1425 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1427 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1428 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1429 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1430 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1431 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1434 * New features for SVR4
1436 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1437 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1438 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1440 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1441 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1442 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1444 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1445 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1447 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1449 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1450 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1451 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1452 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1453 same code linked statically.
1457 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1458 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1459 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1460 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1461 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1462 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1466 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1467 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1468 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1471 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1473 * New machines supported (host and target)
1475 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1476 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1477 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1479 * Almost SCO Unix support
1481 We had hoped to support:
1482 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1483 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1484 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1485 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1487 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1489 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1490 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1491 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1492 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1497 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1498 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1499 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1503 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1504 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1505 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1507 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1509 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1510 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1511 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1513 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1514 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1515 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1516 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1519 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1520 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1521 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1522 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1525 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1526 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1529 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1530 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1531 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1534 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1536 * Improved configuration
1538 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1539 Porting BFD is simpler.
1543 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1544 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1545 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1546 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1550 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1552 * New host supported (not target)
1554 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1557 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1559 * Multiple source language support
1561 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1562 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1563 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1564 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1565 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1566 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1570 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1571 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1572 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1573 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1575 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1576 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1577 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1579 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1580 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1584 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1585 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1586 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1587 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1590 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1592 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1593 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1594 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1595 examining core files.
1599 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1602 * New machines supported (host and target)
1604 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1605 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1606 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1608 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1610 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1612 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1614 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1615 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1616 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1618 * New remote interfaces
1624 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1628 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1630 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1631 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1632 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1633 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1634 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1635 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1636 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1637 stub on the target system.
1639 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1641 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1642 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1643 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1645 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1646 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1649 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1651 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1652 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1654 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1655 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1656 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1658 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1659 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1660 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1661 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1663 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1664 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1665 it is already running. Default is ON.
1667 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1668 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1669 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1670 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1673 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1674 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1675 or the value of the environment variable
1678 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1679 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1682 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1683 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1684 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1686 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1687 history expansion will be performed on
1688 command line input. The default is OFF.
1690 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1691 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1692 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1694 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1695 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1696 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1699 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1700 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1701 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1704 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1705 ``set width'' instead.
1707 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1708 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1709 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1710 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1712 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1715 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1718 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1721 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1724 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1726 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1727 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1728 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1732 * Support for Shared Libraries
1734 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1735 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1736 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1737 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1738 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1739 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1740 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1741 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1743 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1744 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1745 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1747 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1752 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1753 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1754 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1755 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1756 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1757 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1759 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1761 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1763 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1764 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1765 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1768 * C++ multiple inheritance
1770 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1773 * C++ exception handling
1775 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1776 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1777 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1780 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1781 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1782 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1784 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1785 current stack frame.
1788 * Minor command changes
1790 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1791 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1792 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1794 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1795 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1796 frames without printing.
1798 * New directory command
1800 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1801 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1802 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1803 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1804 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1806 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1808 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1811 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1812 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1813 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1814 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob