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.
8 * New native configurations
10 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
11 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
15 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
17 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
18 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
19 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
20 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
21 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
23 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
24 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
25 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
26 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
27 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
28 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
29 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
31 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
32 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
34 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
35 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
36 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
39 * REMOVED configurations
41 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
44 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
49 * All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
51 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
55 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
57 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
59 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
61 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
62 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
63 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
64 greater level of detail.
66 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
68 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
69 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
70 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
73 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
75 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
76 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
77 machines ``out of the box''.
79 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
80 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
81 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
82 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
83 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
85 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
86 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
87 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
88 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
89 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
91 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
92 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
95 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
98 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
99 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
100 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
101 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
103 * New native configurations
105 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
106 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
110 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
111 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
112 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
113 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
115 * OBSOLETE configurations
117 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
118 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
120 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
123 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
124 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
125 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
126 be permanently REMOVED.
128 * Gould support removed
130 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
132 * New features for SVR4
134 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
135 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
136 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
138 * Many C++ enhancements
140 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
141 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
143 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
145 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
146 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
147 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
148 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
150 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
151 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
153 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
155 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
156 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
157 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
159 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
160 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
162 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
164 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
165 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
166 include ``set remote P-packet''.
168 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
170 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
171 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
172 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
174 * ``apropos'' command added.
176 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
177 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
178 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
182 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
183 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
184 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
185 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
186 enabled by configuring with:
188 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
190 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
192 * New native configurations
194 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
195 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
196 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
200 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
201 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
202 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
204 * OBSOLETE configurations
206 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
208 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
209 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
210 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
211 be permanently REMOVED.
215 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
216 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
217 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
218 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
219 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
220 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
221 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
226 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
228 * set extension-language
230 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
231 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
232 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
233 set extension-language .c c++
234 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
235 and their associated languages.
237 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
239 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
240 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
241 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
245 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
246 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
248 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
249 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
251 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
252 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
253 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
254 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
255 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
256 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
257 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
258 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
260 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
261 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
262 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
263 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
267 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
268 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
269 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
270 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
271 for xdb and dbx commands.
275 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
276 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
277 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
279 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
280 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
281 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
283 * Debugging across forks
285 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
290 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
291 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
292 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
294 * GDB remote protocol additions
296 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
297 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
298 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
299 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
301 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
302 full 64-bit address. The command
304 set remoteaddresssize 32
306 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
307 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
310 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
311 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
313 maint packet heythere
315 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
316 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
319 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
320 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
321 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
323 * Tracing can collect general expressions
325 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
326 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
327 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
329 * mask-address variable for Mips
331 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
332 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
333 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
335 * Higher serial baud rates
337 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
338 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
339 to achieve all of these rates.)
343 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
344 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
347 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
349 * New native configurations
351 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
352 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
353 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
354 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
355 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
356 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
357 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
361 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
362 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
363 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
364 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
365 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
366 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
367 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
368 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
369 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
370 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
371 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
373 * New debugging protocols
375 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
376 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
377 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
378 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
379 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
380 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
384 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
385 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
390 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
391 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
393 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
395 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
396 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
397 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
399 * Live range splitting
401 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
402 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
403 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
407 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
408 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
412 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
413 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
414 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
419 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
424 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
425 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
426 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
427 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
428 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
429 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
433 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
434 the symbol at the specified address.
438 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
439 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
440 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
441 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
442 file tracepoint.c for more details.
446 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
447 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
448 of most MIPS variants.
452 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
453 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
454 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
458 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
459 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
460 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
461 the possible architectures.
463 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
465 * New native configurations
467 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
468 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
469 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
470 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
471 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
472 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
476 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
477 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
478 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
479 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
480 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
482 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
486 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
487 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
488 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
489 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
490 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
494 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
496 * Windows 95/NT native
498 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
499 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
500 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
501 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
502 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
504 * dont-repeat command
506 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
507 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
508 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
509 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
511 * Send break instead of ^C
513 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
514 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
515 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
517 * Remote protocol timeout
519 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
520 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
521 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
523 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
525 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
526 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
527 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
528 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
529 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
531 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
532 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
533 automatically on hpux10.
535 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
537 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
539 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
541 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
542 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
543 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
544 every character. The default value is 1050.
546 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
548 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
549 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
550 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
551 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
552 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
553 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
555 * Speedups for remote debugging
557 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
558 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
559 and more efficient S-record downloading.
561 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
563 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
564 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
566 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
570 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
571 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
573 * Remote targets use caching
575 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
576 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
577 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
578 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
579 off' turns the the data cache off.
581 * Remote targets may have threads
583 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
584 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
585 gdb/remote.c for details.
589 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
590 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
591 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
592 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
593 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
594 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
595 sequence is something like
597 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
599 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
603 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
604 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
605 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
606 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
607 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
608 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
609 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
610 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
614 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
615 but does simplify configuration and building.
619 GDB now supports hpux10.
621 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
623 * New native configurations
625 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
626 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
627 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
628 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
632 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
633 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
634 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
635 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
638 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
640 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
641 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
642 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
643 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
644 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
646 * Arguments to user-defined commands
648 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
649 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
652 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
654 To execute the command use:
657 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
658 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
659 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
661 * New `if' and `while' commands
663 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
664 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
665 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
666 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
667 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
668 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
669 if the expression is zero.
671 * Fortran source language mode
673 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
674 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
675 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
676 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
679 * Better HPUX support
681 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
682 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
683 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
684 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
685 that behavior do the following before running the program:
691 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
692 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
698 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
699 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
702 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
703 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
705 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
707 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
708 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
709 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
710 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
711 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
712 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
714 * New DOS host serial code
716 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
717 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
720 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
722 * New "complete" command
724 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
725 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
727 * Trailing space optional in prompt
729 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
730 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
732 * Breakpoint hit counts
734 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
735 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
736 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
737 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
738 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
741 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
743 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
744 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
745 arrays actually contain only short strings.
747 * Shared library breakpoints
749 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
750 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
752 * Hardware watchpoints
754 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
755 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
757 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
761 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
762 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
764 * Improved Irix 5 support
766 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
768 * Improved HPPA support
770 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
772 * New native configurations
774 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
775 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
776 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
777 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
781 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
782 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
785 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
787 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
788 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
792 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
793 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
795 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
797 * Irix 5 is now supported
801 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
802 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
803 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
804 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
805 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
808 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
810 * User visible changes:
814 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
815 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
816 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
817 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
818 debugging info for the mips target).
820 * DEC Alpha native support
822 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
823 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
824 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
825 Alpha-specific notes.
827 * Preliminary thread implementation
829 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
831 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
833 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
834 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
837 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
839 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
840 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
841 call methods, ...etc.
843 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
845 * User visible changes:
847 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
848 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
849 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
850 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
852 Filename completion now works.
854 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
855 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
856 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
858 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
859 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
860 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
861 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
862 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
866 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
867 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
870 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
874 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
875 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
876 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
880 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
881 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
882 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
883 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
884 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
888 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
889 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
890 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
892 * New targets supported
894 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
895 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
896 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
897 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
898 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
900 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
901 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
902 GO32 memory extender.
904 * New remote protocols
906 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
908 * New source languages supported
910 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
911 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
912 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
915 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
917 * HP Precision Architecture supported
919 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
920 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
921 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
922 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
923 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
924 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
926 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
928 * Faster and better demangling
930 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
931 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
932 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
933 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
934 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
935 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
938 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
939 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
940 compiler does not actually implement.
942 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
944 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
945 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
946 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
947 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
948 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
949 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
952 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
953 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
955 * Improved configure script
957 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
958 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
959 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
960 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
962 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
963 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
964 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
965 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
966 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
967 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
969 * Documentation improvements
971 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
972 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
973 before submitting changes.
975 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
976 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
977 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
978 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
979 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
981 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
982 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
983 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
984 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
985 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
990 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
991 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
992 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
995 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
996 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
998 * New native hosts supported
1000 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1001 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1003 * New targets supported
1005 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1007 * New file formats supported
1009 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1010 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1014 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1016 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1017 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1019 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1020 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1021 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1023 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1024 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1026 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1027 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1028 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1031 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1032 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1033 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1034 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1035 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1037 * Internal improvements
1039 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1040 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1042 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1043 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1044 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1045 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1046 shared code that handles any of them.
1048 * New command line options
1050 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1054 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1055 General Public License.
1057 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1059 * Host/native/target split
1061 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1062 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1063 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1064 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1065 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1067 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1068 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1069 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1070 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1071 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1072 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1073 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1075 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1076 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1077 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1079 * New hosts supported
1081 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1082 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1083 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1085 * New targets supported
1087 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1088 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1090 * New native hosts supported
1092 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1093 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1094 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1096 * New file formats supported
1098 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1099 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1100 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1104 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1105 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1106 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1108 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1110 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1111 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1112 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1113 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1117 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1118 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1119 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1121 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1125 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1126 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1129 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1130 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1132 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1133 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1134 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1135 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1136 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1137 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1139 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1140 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1141 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1142 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1146 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1147 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1148 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1149 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1150 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1152 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1153 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1154 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1155 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1159 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1160 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1161 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1162 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1163 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1164 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1165 each instruction being stepped through.
1167 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1168 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1170 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1171 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1172 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1173 processor with a serial port.
1177 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1178 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1179 supported, and what files each one uses.
1183 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1184 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1185 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1186 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1188 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1189 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1190 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1191 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1195 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1196 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1197 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1198 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1199 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1200 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1202 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1205 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1207 * Better support for C++ function names
1209 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1210 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1211 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1212 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1213 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1215 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1216 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1217 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1218 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1219 for the list of formats.
1221 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1223 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1224 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1225 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1226 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1227 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1228 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1231 * New 'maintenance' command
1233 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1234 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1235 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1237 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1238 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1239 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1240 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1241 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1242 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1244 The following commands are new:
1246 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1247 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1248 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1250 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1252 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1253 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1254 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1255 read after argv processing.
1257 * New hosts supported
1259 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1261 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1263 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1264 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1265 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1266 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1267 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1270 * New targets supported
1272 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1274 * More smarts about finding #include files
1276 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1277 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1278 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1279 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1280 the one that contains your sources.
1282 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1283 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1284 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1286 * Interesting infernals change
1288 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1289 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1290 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1291 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1293 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1295 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1296 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1297 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1299 See the ChangeLog for details.
1301 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1303 * New machines supported (host and target)
1305 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1307 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1309 * New malloc package
1311 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1312 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1313 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1314 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1315 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1316 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1320 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1321 'help info proc' for details.
1323 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1325 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1326 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1329 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1331 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1332 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1333 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1334 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1335 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1336 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1338 * Cross byte order fixes
1340 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1341 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1343 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1345 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1346 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1347 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1348 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1349 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1350 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1351 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1352 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1353 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1354 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1356 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1357 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1358 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1359 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1361 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1362 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1363 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1366 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1368 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1369 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1370 shared across multiple host platforms.
1372 * longjmp() handling
1374 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1375 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1376 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1377 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1381 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1382 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1387 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1388 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1389 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1391 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1393 * New machines supported (host and target)
1395 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1397 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1398 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1400 * New machines supported (target)
1402 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1406 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1407 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1408 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1410 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1411 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1412 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1413 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1414 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1417 * New features for SVR4
1419 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1420 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1421 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1423 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1424 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1425 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1427 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1428 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1430 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1432 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1433 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1434 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1435 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1436 same code linked statically.
1440 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1441 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1442 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1443 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1444 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1445 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1449 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1450 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1451 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1454 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1456 * New machines supported (host and target)
1458 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1459 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1460 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1462 * Almost SCO Unix support
1464 We had hoped to support:
1465 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1466 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1467 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1468 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1470 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1472 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1473 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1474 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1475 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1480 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1481 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1482 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1486 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1487 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1488 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1490 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1492 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1493 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1494 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1496 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1497 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1498 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1499 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1502 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1503 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1504 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1505 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1508 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1509 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1512 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1513 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1514 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1517 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1519 * Improved configuration
1521 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1522 Porting BFD is simpler.
1526 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1527 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1528 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1529 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1533 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1535 * New host supported (not target)
1537 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1540 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1542 * Multiple source language support
1544 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1545 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1546 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1547 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1548 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1549 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1553 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1554 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1555 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1556 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1558 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1559 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1560 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1562 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1563 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1567 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1568 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1569 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1570 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1573 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1575 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1576 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1577 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1578 examining core files.
1582 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1585 * New machines supported (host and target)
1587 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1588 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1589 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1591 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1593 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1595 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1597 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1598 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1599 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1601 * New remote interfaces
1607 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1611 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1613 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1614 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1615 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1616 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1617 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1618 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1619 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1620 stub on the target system.
1622 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1624 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1625 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1626 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1628 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1629 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1632 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1634 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1635 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1637 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1638 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1639 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1641 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1642 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1643 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1644 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1646 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1647 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1648 it is already running. Default is ON.
1650 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1651 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1652 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1653 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1656 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1657 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1658 or the value of the environment variable
1661 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1662 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1665 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1666 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1667 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1669 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1670 history expansion will be performed on
1671 command line input. The default is OFF.
1673 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1674 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1675 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1677 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1678 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1679 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1682 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1683 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1684 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1687 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1688 ``set width'' instead.
1690 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1691 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1692 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1693 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1695 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1698 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1701 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1704 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1707 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1709 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1710 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1711 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1715 * Support for Shared Libraries
1717 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1718 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1719 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1720 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1721 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1722 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1723 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1724 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1726 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1727 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1728 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1730 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1735 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1736 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1737 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1738 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1739 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1740 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1742 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1744 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1746 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1747 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1748 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1751 * C++ multiple inheritance
1753 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1756 * C++ exception handling
1758 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1759 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1760 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1763 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1764 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1765 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1767 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1768 current stack frame.
1771 * Minor command changes
1773 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1774 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1775 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1777 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1778 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1779 frames without printing.
1781 * New directory command
1783 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1784 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1785 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1786 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1787 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1789 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1791 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1794 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1795 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1796 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1797 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob