What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 6.0:
+*** Changes since GDB 6.1:
+* New ``start'' command.
+
+This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
+
+* Signal trampoline code overhauled
+
+Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
+These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
+of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
+call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
+signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
+
+These fixes were tested on i386 GNU/Linux systems that include a 2.4
+kernel.
+
+* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
+
+* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
+
+Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
+wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
+
+* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
+
+The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
+permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
+systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
+
+* New native configurations
+
+OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
+OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
+OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
+NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
+OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
+
+* REMOVED configurations and files
+
+Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
+Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
+Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
+Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
+Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
+AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
+Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
+decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
+riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
+sonymips mips-sony-*
+sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
+
+*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
+
+* Removed --with-mmalloc
+
+Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
+conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
+
+* Changes in AMD64 configurations
+
+The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
+the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
+and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
+you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
+
+* Revised SPARC target
+
+The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
+FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
+support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
+from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
+(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
+
+* New C++ demangler
+
+GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
+names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
+with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
+programs.
+
+* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
+
+GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
+arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
+encountered these.
+
+* C++ nested types and namespaces
+
+GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
+improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
+is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
+Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
+namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
+"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
+frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
+if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
+GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
+
+* New native configurations
+
+NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
+OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
+OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
+OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
+OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
+
+* New debugging protocols
+
+M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
+
+* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
+
+The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
+and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
+tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
+
+* OBSOLETE configurations and files
+
+Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
+been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
+configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
+permanently REMOVED.
+
+Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
+Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
+Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
+Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
+Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
+AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
+Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
+decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
+riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
+sonymips mips-sony-*
+sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
+
+* REMOVED configurations and files
+
+SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
+SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
+Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
+Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
+H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
+HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
+HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
+HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
+PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
+386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
+Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
+ i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
+ i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
+SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
+SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
+Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
+Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
+* Objective-C
+
+Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
+integrated into GDB.
+
+* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
+
+DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
+information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
+By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
+backtraces.
+
+The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
+have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
+DWARF 2 CFI support.
+
+* Hosted file I/O.
+
+GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
+file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
+remote protocol documentation for details.
+
+* All targets using the new architecture framework.
+
+All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
+architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
+to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
+ppc32 on ppc64).
+
+* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
+
+GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
+per-thread variables.
+
+* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
+
+GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
+GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
+
+* Separate debug info.
+
+GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
+automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
+of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
+system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
+and optional debug files.
+
+* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
+
+DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
+describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
+debugger.
+
+GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
+for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
+
+* Java
+
+A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
+Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
+considered "useable".
+
+* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
+
+The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
+commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
+kernel.
+
+* GDB supports logging output to a file
+
+There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
+used to capture GDB's output to a file.
+
* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
command.
-* d10v `regs' command deprecated
+* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
in a subsequent -var-update.
+* New native configurations.
+
+FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
+
* Multi-arched targets.
-HP/PA HPUX11, 32bit ABI (partial) hppa*-*-hpux* except hppa*64*-*-hpux11*
+HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
+Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
* OBSOLETE configurations and files
configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
permanently REMOVED.
-Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms