1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.1:
6 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
8 * Removed --with-mmalloc
10 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
11 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
13 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
15 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
16 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
17 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
18 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
20 * Revised SPARC target
22 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
23 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
24 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
25 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
26 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
30 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
31 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
32 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
35 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
37 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
38 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
41 * New native configurations
43 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
44 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
45 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
46 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
47 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
49 * New debugging protocols
51 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
53 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
55 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
56 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
57 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
59 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
61 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
62 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
63 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
66 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
67 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
68 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
69 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
70 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
71 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
72 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
73 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
74 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
76 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
78 * REMOVED configurations and files
80 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
81 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
82 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
83 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
84 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
85 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
86 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
87 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
88 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
89 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
90 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
91 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
92 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
93 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
94 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
95 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
96 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
98 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
102 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
105 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
107 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
108 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
109 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
112 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
113 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
118 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
119 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
120 remote protocol documentation for details.
122 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
124 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
125 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
126 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
129 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
131 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
132 per-thread variables.
134 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
136 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
137 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
139 * Separate debug info.
141 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
142 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
143 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
144 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
145 and optional debug files.
147 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
149 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
150 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
153 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
154 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
158 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
159 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
160 considered "useable".
162 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
164 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
165 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
168 * GDB supports logging output to a file
170 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
171 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
173 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
175 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
176 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
179 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
181 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
182 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
186 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
187 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
188 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
189 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
190 data, for more informative profiling results.
192 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
194 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
195 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
196 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
198 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
201 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
202 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
203 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
204 in a subsequent -var-update.
206 * New native configurations.
208 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
210 * Multi-arched targets.
212 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
213 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
215 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
217 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
218 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
219 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
222 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
223 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
224 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
225 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
226 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
227 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
228 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
229 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
230 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
231 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
232 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
233 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
235 * REMOVED configurations and files
238 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
239 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
240 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
241 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
242 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
243 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
245 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
246 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
247 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
248 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
249 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
250 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
252 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
254 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
255 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
256 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
257 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
258 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
260 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
262 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
264 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
265 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
266 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
267 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
268 shared libs like mad''.
270 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
272 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
273 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
274 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
275 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
277 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
279 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
280 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
283 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
284 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
286 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
287 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
289 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
290 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
291 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
292 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
294 * Multi-arched targets.
296 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
297 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
299 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
300 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
301 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
305 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
308 * New native configurations
310 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
311 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
312 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
313 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
315 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
317 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
318 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
319 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
322 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
323 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
324 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
325 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
326 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
327 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
328 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
329 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
330 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
331 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
333 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
334 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
338 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
340 * REMOVED configurations and files
342 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
343 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
344 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
345 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
346 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
348 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
350 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
352 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
353 commands. The default is 1024.
355 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
357 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
359 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
361 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
362 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
363 from a file into memory (restore).
365 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
367 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
368 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
369 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
371 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
379 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
380 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
381 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
383 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
384 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
385 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
387 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
388 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
389 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
391 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
392 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
393 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
395 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
397 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
399 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
400 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
401 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
402 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
403 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
404 (notably embedded) targets.
406 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
408 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
409 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
410 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
411 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
413 * New command line option
415 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
417 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
419 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
420 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
421 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
422 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
423 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
424 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
425 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
426 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
427 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
428 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
430 * Changes in ARM configurations.
432 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
433 configuration is fully multi-arch.
435 * New native configurations
437 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
438 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
439 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
440 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
444 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
446 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
448 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
449 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
450 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
453 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
454 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
455 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
456 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
457 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
459 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
461 * REMOVED configurations and files
463 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
465 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
466 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
467 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
468 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
469 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
470 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
471 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
472 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
473 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
474 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
475 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
477 * Changes to command line processing
479 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
480 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
482 * Changes to key bindings
484 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
486 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
488 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
490 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
493 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
495 Numerous documentation fixes.
497 Numerous testsuite fixes.
499 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
501 * New native configurations
503 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
504 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
505 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
506 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
508 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
512 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
514 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
516 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
518 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
519 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
520 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
521 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
522 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
524 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
525 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
526 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
527 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
528 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
529 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
530 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
531 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
533 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
534 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
536 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
537 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
538 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
541 * REMOVED configurations and files
543 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
544 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
546 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
550 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
552 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
553 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
558 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
560 * The MI enabled by default.
562 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
563 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
564 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
565 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
566 which is now deprecated.
568 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
570 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
571 main features are supported:
573 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
575 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
578 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
580 - a Pascal expression parser.
582 However, some important features are not yet supported.
584 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
586 - there are some problems with boolean types;
588 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
589 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
591 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
593 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
595 * Changes in completion.
597 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
598 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
599 users expect at the shell prompt.
601 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
602 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
603 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
604 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
605 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
606 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
607 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
609 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
611 * New platform-independent commands:
613 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
614 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
615 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
617 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
619 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
620 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
621 many threads as your system allows you to have.
623 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
625 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
626 multi-threaded programs though.
628 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
630 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
632 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
633 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
636 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
638 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
639 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
640 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
641 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
642 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
645 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
646 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
647 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
649 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
651 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
652 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
654 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
655 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
658 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
659 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
660 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
661 a given linear address.
663 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
664 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
665 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
667 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
669 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
671 * Changes in documentation.
673 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
674 Documentation License.
676 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
679 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
681 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
684 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
685 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
686 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
688 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
690 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
691 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
692 contents of this file.
696 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
698 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
700 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
702 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
703 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
704 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
705 greater level of detail.
707 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
709 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
710 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
711 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
714 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
716 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
717 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
718 machines ``out of the box''.
720 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
721 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
722 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
723 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
724 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
726 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
727 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
728 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
729 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
730 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
732 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
733 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
736 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
739 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
740 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
741 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
742 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
744 * New native configurations
746 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
747 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
751 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
752 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
753 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
754 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
756 * OBSOLETE configurations
758 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
759 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
761 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
764 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
765 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
766 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
767 be permanently REMOVED.
769 * Gould support removed
771 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
773 * New features for SVR4
775 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
776 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
777 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
779 * Many C++ enhancements
781 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
782 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
784 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
786 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
787 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
788 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
789 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
791 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
792 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
794 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
796 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
797 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
798 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
800 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
801 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
803 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
805 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
806 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
807 include ``set remote P-packet''.
809 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
811 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
812 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
813 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
815 * ``apropos'' command added.
817 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
818 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
819 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
823 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
824 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
825 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
826 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
827 enabled by configuring with:
829 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
831 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
833 * New native configurations
835 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
836 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
837 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
841 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
842 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
843 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
845 * OBSOLETE configurations
847 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
849 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
850 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
851 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
852 be permanently REMOVED.
856 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
857 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
858 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
859 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
860 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
861 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
862 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
867 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
869 * set extension-language
871 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
872 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
873 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
874 set extension-language .c c++
875 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
876 and their associated languages.
878 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
880 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
881 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
882 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
886 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
887 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
889 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
890 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
892 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
893 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
894 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
895 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
896 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
897 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
898 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
899 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
901 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
902 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
903 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
904 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
908 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
909 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
910 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
911 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
912 for xdb and dbx commands.
916 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
917 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
918 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
920 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
921 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
922 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
924 * Debugging across forks
926 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
931 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
932 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
933 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
935 * GDB remote protocol additions
937 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
938 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
939 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
940 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
942 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
943 full 64-bit address. The command
945 set remoteaddresssize 32
947 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
948 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
951 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
952 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
954 maint packet heythere
956 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
957 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
960 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
961 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
962 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
964 * Tracing can collect general expressions
966 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
967 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
968 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
970 * mask-address variable for Mips
972 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
973 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
974 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
976 * Higher serial baud rates
978 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
979 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
980 to achieve all of these rates.)
984 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
985 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
988 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
990 * New native configurations
992 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
993 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
994 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
995 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
996 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
997 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
998 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1002 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1003 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1004 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1005 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1006 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1007 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1008 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1009 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1010 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1011 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1012 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1014 * New debugging protocols
1016 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1017 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1018 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1019 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1020 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1021 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1025 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1026 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1031 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1032 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1034 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1036 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1037 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1038 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1040 * Live range splitting
1042 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1043 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1044 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1048 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1049 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1053 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1054 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1055 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1060 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1065 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1066 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1067 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1068 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1069 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1070 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1074 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1075 the symbol at the specified address.
1079 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1080 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1081 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1082 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1083 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1087 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1088 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1089 of most MIPS variants.
1093 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1094 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1095 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1099 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1100 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1101 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1102 the possible architectures.
1104 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1106 * New native configurations
1108 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1109 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1110 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1111 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1112 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1113 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1117 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1118 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1119 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1120 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1121 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1123 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1127 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1128 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1129 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1130 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1131 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1135 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1137 * Windows 95/NT native
1139 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1140 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1141 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1142 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1143 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1145 * dont-repeat command
1147 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1148 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1149 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1150 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1152 * Send break instead of ^C
1154 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1155 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1156 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1158 * Remote protocol timeout
1160 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1161 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1162 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1164 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1166 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1167 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1168 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1169 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1170 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1172 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1173 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1174 automatically on hpux10.
1176 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1178 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1180 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1182 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1183 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1184 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1185 every character. The default value is 1050.
1187 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1189 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1190 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1191 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1192 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1193 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1194 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1196 * Speedups for remote debugging
1198 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1199 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1200 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1202 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1204 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1205 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1207 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1209 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1211 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1212 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1214 * Remote targets use caching
1216 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1217 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1218 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1219 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1220 off' turns the the data cache off.
1222 * Remote targets may have threads
1224 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1225 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1226 gdb/remote.c for details.
1230 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1231 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1232 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1233 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1234 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1235 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1236 sequence is something like
1238 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1240 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1244 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1245 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1246 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1247 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1248 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1249 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1250 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1251 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1255 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1256 but does simplify configuration and building.
1260 GDB now supports hpux10.
1262 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1264 * New native configurations
1266 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1267 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1268 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1269 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1273 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1274 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1275 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1276 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1279 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1281 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1282 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1283 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1284 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1285 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1287 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1289 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1290 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1293 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1295 To execute the command use:
1298 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1299 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1300 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1302 * New `if' and `while' commands
1304 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1305 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1306 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1307 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1308 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1309 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1310 if the expression is zero.
1312 * Fortran source language mode
1314 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1315 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1316 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1317 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1320 * Better HPUX support
1322 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1323 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1324 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1325 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1326 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1332 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1333 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1339 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1340 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1343 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1344 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1346 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1348 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1349 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1350 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1351 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1352 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1353 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1355 * New DOS host serial code
1357 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1358 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1361 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1363 * New "complete" command
1365 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1366 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1368 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1370 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1371 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1373 * Breakpoint hit counts
1375 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1376 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1377 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1378 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1379 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1382 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1384 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1385 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1386 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1388 * Shared library breakpoints
1390 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1391 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1393 * Hardware watchpoints
1395 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1396 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1398 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1402 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1403 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1405 * Improved Irix 5 support
1407 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1409 * Improved HPPA support
1411 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1413 * New native configurations
1415 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1416 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1417 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1418 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1422 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1423 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1426 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1428 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1429 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1433 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1434 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1436 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1438 * Irix 5 is now supported
1442 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1443 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1444 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1445 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1446 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1449 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1451 * User visible changes:
1455 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1456 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1457 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1458 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1459 debugging info for the mips target).
1461 * DEC Alpha native support
1463 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1464 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1465 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1466 Alpha-specific notes.
1468 * Preliminary thread implementation
1470 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1472 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1474 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1475 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1478 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1480 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1481 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1482 call methods, ...etc.
1484 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1486 * User visible changes:
1488 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1489 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1490 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1491 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1493 Filename completion now works.
1495 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1496 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1497 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1499 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1500 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1501 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1502 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1503 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1507 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1508 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1511 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1515 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1516 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1517 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1521 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1522 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1523 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1524 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1525 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1529 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1530 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1531 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1533 * New targets supported
1535 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1536 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1537 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1538 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1539 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1541 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1542 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1543 GO32 memory extender.
1545 * New remote protocols
1547 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1549 * New source languages supported
1551 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1552 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1553 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1556 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1558 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1560 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1561 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1562 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1563 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1564 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1565 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1567 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1569 * Faster and better demangling
1571 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1572 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1573 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1574 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1575 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1576 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1579 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1580 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1581 compiler does not actually implement.
1583 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1585 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1586 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1587 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1588 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1589 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1590 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1593 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1594 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1596 * Improved configure script
1598 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1599 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1600 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1601 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1603 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1604 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1605 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1606 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1607 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1608 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1610 * Documentation improvements
1612 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1613 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1614 before submitting changes.
1616 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1617 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1618 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1619 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1620 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1622 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1623 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1624 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1625 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1626 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1627 around this problem.
1631 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1632 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1633 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1636 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1637 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1639 * New native hosts supported
1641 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1642 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1644 * New targets supported
1646 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1648 * New file formats supported
1650 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1651 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1655 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1657 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1658 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1660 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1661 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1662 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1664 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1665 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1667 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1668 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1669 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1672 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1673 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1674 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1675 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1676 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1678 * Internal improvements
1680 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1681 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1683 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1684 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1685 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1686 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1687 shared code that handles any of them.
1689 * New command line options
1691 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1695 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1696 General Public License.
1698 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1700 * Host/native/target split
1702 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1703 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1704 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1705 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1706 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1708 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1709 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1710 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1711 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1712 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1713 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1714 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1716 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1717 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1718 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1720 * New hosts supported
1722 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1723 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1724 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1726 * New targets supported
1728 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1729 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1731 * New native hosts supported
1733 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1734 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1735 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1737 * New file formats supported
1739 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1740 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1741 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1745 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1746 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1747 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1749 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1751 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1752 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1753 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1754 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1758 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1759 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1760 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1762 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1766 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1767 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1770 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1771 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1773 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1774 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1775 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1776 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1777 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1778 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1780 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1781 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1782 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1783 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1787 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1788 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1789 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1790 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1791 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1793 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1794 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1795 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1796 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1800 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1801 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1802 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1803 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1804 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1805 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1806 each instruction being stepped through.
1808 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1809 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1811 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1812 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1813 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1814 processor with a serial port.
1818 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1819 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1820 supported, and what files each one uses.
1824 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1825 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1826 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1827 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1829 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1830 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1831 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1832 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1836 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1837 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1838 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1839 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1840 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1841 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1843 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1846 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1848 * Better support for C++ function names
1850 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1851 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1852 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1853 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1854 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1856 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1857 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1858 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1859 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1860 for the list of formats.
1862 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1864 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1865 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1866 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1867 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1868 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1869 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1872 * New 'maintenance' command
1874 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1875 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1876 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1878 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1879 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1880 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1881 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1882 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1883 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1885 The following commands are new:
1887 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1888 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1889 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1891 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1893 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1894 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1895 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1896 read after argv processing.
1898 * New hosts supported
1900 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1902 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1904 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1905 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1906 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1907 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1908 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1911 * New targets supported
1913 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1915 * More smarts about finding #include files
1917 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1918 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1919 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1920 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1921 the one that contains your sources.
1923 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1924 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1925 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1927 * Interesting infernals change
1929 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1930 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1931 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1932 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1934 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1936 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1937 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1938 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1940 See the ChangeLog for details.
1942 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1944 * New machines supported (host and target)
1946 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1948 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1950 * New malloc package
1952 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1953 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1954 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1955 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1956 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1957 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1961 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1962 'help info proc' for details.
1964 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1966 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1967 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1970 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1972 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1973 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1974 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1975 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1976 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1977 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1979 * Cross byte order fixes
1981 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1982 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1984 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1986 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1987 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1988 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1989 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1990 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1991 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1992 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1993 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1994 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1995 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1997 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1998 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1999 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2000 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2002 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2003 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2004 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2007 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2009 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2010 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2011 shared across multiple host platforms.
2013 * longjmp() handling
2015 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2016 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2017 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2018 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2022 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2023 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2028 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2029 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2030 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2032 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2034 * New machines supported (host and target)
2036 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2038 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2039 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2041 * New machines supported (target)
2043 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2047 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2048 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2049 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2051 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2052 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2053 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2054 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2055 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2058 * New features for SVR4
2060 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2061 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2062 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2064 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2065 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2066 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2068 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2069 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2071 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2073 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2074 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2075 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2076 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2077 same code linked statically.
2081 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2082 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2083 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2084 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2085 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2086 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2090 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2091 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2092 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2095 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2097 * New machines supported (host and target)
2099 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2100 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2101 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2103 * Almost SCO Unix support
2105 We had hoped to support:
2106 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2107 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2108 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2109 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2111 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2113 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2114 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2115 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2116 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2121 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2122 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2123 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2127 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2128 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2129 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2131 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2133 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2134 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2135 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2137 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2138 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2139 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2140 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2143 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2144 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2145 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2146 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2149 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2150 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2153 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2154 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2155 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2158 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2160 * Improved configuration
2162 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2163 Porting BFD is simpler.
2167 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2168 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2169 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2170 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2174 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2176 * New host supported (not target)
2178 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2181 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2183 * Multiple source language support
2185 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2186 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2187 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2188 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2189 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2190 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2194 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2195 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2196 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2197 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2199 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2200 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2201 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2203 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2204 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2208 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2209 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2210 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2211 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2214 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2216 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2217 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2218 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2219 examining core files.
2223 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2226 * New machines supported (host and target)
2228 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2229 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2230 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2232 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2234 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2236 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2238 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2239 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2240 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2242 * New remote interfaces
2248 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2252 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2254 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2255 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2256 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2257 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2258 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2259 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2260 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2261 stub on the target system.
2263 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2265 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2266 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2267 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2269 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2270 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2273 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2275 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2276 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2278 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2279 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2280 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2282 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2283 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2284 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2285 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2287 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2288 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2289 it is already running. Default is ON.
2291 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2292 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2293 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2294 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2297 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2298 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2299 or the value of the environment variable
2302 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2303 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2306 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2307 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2308 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2310 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2311 history expansion will be performed on
2312 command line input. The default is OFF.
2314 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2315 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2316 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2318 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2319 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2320 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2323 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2324 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2325 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2328 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2329 ``set width'' instead.
2331 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2332 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2333 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2334 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2336 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2339 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2342 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2345 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2348 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2350 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2351 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2352 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2356 * Support for Shared Libraries
2358 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2359 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2360 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2361 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2362 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2363 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2364 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2365 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2367 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2368 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2369 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2371 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2376 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2377 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2378 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2379 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2380 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2381 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2383 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2385 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2387 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2388 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2389 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2392 * C++ multiple inheritance
2394 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2397 * C++ exception handling
2399 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2400 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2401 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2404 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2405 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2406 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2408 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2409 current stack frame.
2412 * Minor command changes
2414 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2415 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2416 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2418 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2419 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2420 frames without printing.
2422 * New directory command
2424 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2425 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2426 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2427 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2428 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2430 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2432 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2435 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2436 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2437 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2438 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob