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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.7
5
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6* New commands
7
8set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
9show print frame-arguments
10 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
11 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
12
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13* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
14(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
15
fe6fbf8b 16* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 17is resolved.
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18
19* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
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20including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
21and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 22
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23* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
24
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25* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
26registers on PowerPC targets.
27
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28* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
29targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
30
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31* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
32 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
33 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
34 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
35
8d5f9c6f 36*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 37
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38* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
39bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
40Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
41
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42* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
43symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
44-Bsymbolic linker option.
45
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46* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
47recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
48is not supported.
49
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50* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
51frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
52
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53* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
5432-bit or 64-bit register values.
55
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56* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
57
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58* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
59target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
60a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
61
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62* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
63automatically displayed as character or string data.
64
65* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
66arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
67as strings.
e1f48ead 68
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69* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
70for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 71only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 72
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73* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
74iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 75
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76* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
77ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
78has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
79
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80* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
81
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82* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
83
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84* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
85layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
86segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
87
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88* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
89immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
90
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91* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
92"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
93packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
94where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
95Windows and SymbianOS).
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96
97* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
98(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
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99
100* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
101according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 102
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103* New commands
104
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105set remoteflow
106show remoteflow
107 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
108 when debugging using remote targets.
109
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110set mem inaccessible-by-default
111show mem inaccessible-by-default
112 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
113 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
114 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
115 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
116 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
117
118set breakpoint auto-hw
119show breakpoint auto-hw
120 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
121 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
122 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
123 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
124 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
125 including "next" and "finish".
126
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127catch exception
128catch exception unhandled
129 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
130
131catch assert
132 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
133
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134set sysroot
135show sysroot
136 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
137 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
138 an alias to "set sysroot".
139
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140info spu
141 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
142 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
143 architecture.
144
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145* New native configurations
146
147OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
148
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149set tdesc filename
150unset tdesc filename
151show tdesc filename
152 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
153 not query the target for its built-in description.
154
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155* New targets
156
54fe9172 157OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 158MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 159Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 160
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161* New remote packets
162
163QPassSignals:
164 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
165 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
166
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167qXfer:features:read:
168 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
169 features.
6dd09645 170
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171qXfer:spu:read:
172qXfer:spu:write:
173 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
174 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
175
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176qXfer:libraries:read:
177 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
178 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
179 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
180 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
181
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182* Removed targets
183
184Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
185
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186alpha*-*-osf1*
187alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 188d10v-*-*
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189hppa*-*-hiux*
190i[34567]86-ncr-*
191i[34567]86-*-dgux*
192i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
193i[34567]86-*-netware*
194i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
195i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
196i[34567]86-*-sco*
197i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
198i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
199i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
200i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
201i[34567]86-*-unixware*
202i[34567]86-*-sysv*
203i[34567]86-*-isc*
204m68*-cisco*-*
205m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 206mips*-*-pe
483367ee 207rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 208sh*-*-pe
483367ee 209
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210* Other removed features
211
212target abug
213target cpu32bug
214target est
215target rom68k
216
217 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
218
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219target hms
220target e7000
221target sh3
222target sh3e
223
224 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
225 H8/300.
226
227target ocd
228
229 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
230 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
231 interfaces.
232
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233DWARF 1 support
234
235 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
236 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
237
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238Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
239
240 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
241 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
242 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
243 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
244
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245MIPS ".pdr" sections
246
247 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
248 in debugging information.
249
250Scheme support
251
252 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
253 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
254
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255set mips stack-arg-size
256set mips saved-gpreg-size
257
258 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
259
6dd09645 260*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 261
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262* New targets
263
264Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 265Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 266
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267* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
268(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
269running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
270
271* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
272Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
273supported.
274
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275* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
276broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
277
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278* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
279stub provides the required support.
280
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281* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
282longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
283
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284* New commands
285
286set substitute-path
287unset substitute-path
288show substitute-path
289 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
290 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
291 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
292 between compilation and debugging.
293
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294set trace-commands
295show trace-commands
296 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
297 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
298 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
299
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300* REMOVED features
301
302The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
303
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304Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
305an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
306
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307The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
308
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309* New remote packets
310
311qSupported:
312 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
313 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
314 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
315 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
316 target.
317
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318qXfer:auxv:read:
319 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
320 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
321
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322qXfer:memory-map:read:
323 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
324 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
325
326vFlashErase:
327vFlashWrite:
328vFlashDone:
329 Erase and program a flash memory device.
330
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331* Removed remote packets
332
333qPart:auxv:read:
334 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
335 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
336
e374b601 337*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 338
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339* New targets
340
341Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
342
343Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
344
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345* New commands
346
347init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
348 only if it doesn't already have a value.
349
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350The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
351
352checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
353
354restart <n> Return the program state to a
355 previously saved state.
356
357info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
358
359delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
360
361set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
362 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
363
364info forks List forks of the user program that
365 are available to be debugged.
366
367fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
368 forks of the user program that are
369 available to be debugged.
370
371delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
372 that are available to be debugged (and
373 kill the forked process).
374
375detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
376 that are available to be debugged (and
377 allow the process to continue).
378
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379* New architecture
380
381Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
382
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383* Improved Windows host support
384
385GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
386native console support, and remote communications using either
387network sockets or serial ports.
388
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389* Improved Modula-2 language support
390
391GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
392basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
393pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
394printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
395written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
396GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
397
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398* REMOVED features
399
400The ARM rdi-share module.
401
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402The Netware NLM debug server.
403
53e5f3cf 404*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 405
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406* New native configurations
407
02a677ac 408OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
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409OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
410
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411* New targets
412
413Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
414
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415* New command line options
416
417--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
418--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
419 the child (debugged) program exited with.
420--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
421 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
422 specified multiple times and in conjunction
423 with the --command (-x) option.
424
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425* Deprecated commands removed
426
427The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
428removed:
429
430 Command Replacement
431 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
432 othernames set arm disassembler
433 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
434 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
435 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
436 regs info registers
437
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438* New BSD user-level threads support
439
440It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
441library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
442configurations are:
443
444FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
445FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
446OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
447
448Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
449are not yet supported.
450
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451* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
452(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
453
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454* REMOVED configurations and files
455
456VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 457Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 458National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 459
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460* New "set print array-indexes" command
461
462After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
463when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
464behavior.
465
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466* VAX floating point support
467
468GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
469
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470* User-defined command support
471
472In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
473to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
474section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
475
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476*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
477
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478* New command line option
479
480GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
481debugging.
482
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483* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
484
485GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
486information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
487by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
488proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
489to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 490
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491* Internationalization
492
493When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
494internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
495continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
496
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497* Ada
498
499Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
500implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
501into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
502
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503* New native configurations
504
505GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
506
507* Remote 'p' packet
508
509GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
510packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
511
512* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
513
514GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
515The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
516features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
517i386 application).
518
519GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
520compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
521continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
522configurations:
523
524hppa-*-hpux
525ia64-*-aix
526mips-*-irix*
527*-*-lynx
528mips-*-linux-gnu
529sds protocol
530xdr protocol
531powerpc bdm protocol
532
533Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
534made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
535
536* OBSOLETE configurations and files
537
538Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
539been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
540configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
541permanently REMOVED.
542
543h8300-*-*
544mcore-*-*
545mn10300-*-*
546ns32k-*-*
547sh64-*-*
548v850-*-*
549
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550*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
551
552* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
553
554When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
555heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
556been fixed.
557
558* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
559
560When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
561fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
562IRIX long double values).
563
564* VAX and "next"
565
566A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
567command. This problem has been fixed.
568
860660cb 569*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 570
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571* Fix for ``many threads''
572
573On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
574rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
575error message:
576
577 ptrace: No such process.
578 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
579
580This problem has been fixed.
581
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582* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
583
584Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
585GDB to dump core).
586
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587* New ``start'' command.
588
589This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
590
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591* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
592
593Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
594live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
595platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
596
597FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
598FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
599NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
600NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
601NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
602OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
603OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
604OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
605OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
606
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607* Signal trampoline code overhauled
608
609Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
610These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
611of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
612call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
613signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
614
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615Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
616features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
617include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 618
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619* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
620
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621* New native configurations
622
97dc871c 623GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 624OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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625OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
626OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 627OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 628NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 629OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 630
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631* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
632
633GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
634The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
635including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
636migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
637compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
638work, was also included.
639
640GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
641module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
642
643h8300-*-*
644mcore-*-*
645mn10300-*-*
646ns32k-*-*
647sh64-*-*
648v850-*-*
649xstormy16-*-*
650
651Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
652made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
653
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654* REMOVED configurations and files
655
656Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
657Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
658Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
659Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
660Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
661AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
662Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
663decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
664riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
665sonymips mips-sony-*
666sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
667
e5fe55f7
AC
668*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
669
670* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
671
672The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
673GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
674command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
675program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
676with GDB".
677
678* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
679
680Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
681libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
682cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
683GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
684shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
685the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
686are created.
687
688Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
689
690* Fixed ISO-C build problems
691
692The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
693non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
694compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
695
696* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
697
698Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
699wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
700
701* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
702
703The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
704permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
705systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
706
707* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
708
709Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
710has been updated to use constant array sizes.
711
712* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
713
714GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
715its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
716panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
717
718* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
719
720When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
721by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
722not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
723
faae5abe 724*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 725
9175c9a3
MC
726* Removed --with-mmalloc
727
728Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
729conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
730
3cc87ec0
MK
731* Changes in AMD64 configurations
732
733The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
734the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
735and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
736you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
737
f0424ef6
MK
738* Revised SPARC target
739
740The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
741FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
742support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
743from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
744(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 745
59659be2
ILT
746* New C++ demangler
747
748GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
749names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
750with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
751programs.
752
9e08b29b
DJ
753* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
754
755GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
756arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
757encountered these.
758
8dfe8985
DC
759* C++ nested types and namespaces
760
761GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
762improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
763is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
764Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
765namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
766"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
767frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
768if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
769GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
770
cced5e27
MK
771* New native configurations
772
773NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 774OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 775OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
776OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
777OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 778
b4b4b794
KI
779* New debugging protocols
780
781M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
782
7989c619
AC
783* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
784
785The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
786and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
787tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
788
5994185b
AC
789* OBSOLETE configurations and files
790
791Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
792been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
793configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
794permanently REMOVED.
795
796Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
797Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
798Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
799Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
800Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
801AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
802Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
803decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
804riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
805sonymips mips-sony-*
806sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 807
0ddabb4c
AC
808* REMOVED configurations and files
809
810SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
811SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
812Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
813Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
814H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
815HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
816HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
817HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
818PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 819386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
820Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
821 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
822 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
823SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
824SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
825Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
826Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 827
c7f1390e
DJ
828*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
829
1fe43d45
AC
830* Objective-C
831
832Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
833integrated into GDB.
834
e6beb428
AC
835* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
836
837DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
838information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
839By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
840backtraces.
841
842The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
843have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
844DWARF 2 CFI support.
845
846* Hosted file I/O.
847
848GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
849file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
850remote protocol documentation for details.
851
852* All targets using the new architecture framework.
853
854All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
855architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
856to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
857ppc32 on ppc64).
858
859* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
860
861GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
862per-thread variables.
863
864* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
865
866GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
867GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
868
869* Separate debug info.
870
871GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
872automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
873of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
874system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
875and optional debug files.
876
877* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
878
879DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
880describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
881debugger.
882
883GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
884for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
885
886* Java
887
888A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
889Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
890considered "useable".
891
85f8f974
DJ
892* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
893
894The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
895commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
896kernel.
897
0fac0b41
DJ
898* GDB supports logging output to a file
899
900There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
901used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 902
6ad8ae5c
DJ
903* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
904
905The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
906disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
907command.
908
e286caf2 909* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
910
911The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
912registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
913
d28f9cdf
DJ
914* Profiling support
915
916A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
917be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
918session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
919"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
920data, for more informative profiling results.
921
da0f9dcd
AC
922* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
923
924The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
925option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 926"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
927
928Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
929removed.
930
fb9b6b35
JJ
931Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
932Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
933Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
934 in a subsequent -var-update.
935
954a4db8
MK
936* New native configurations.
937
938FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
939
6760f9e6
JB
940* Multi-arched targets.
941
b4263afa 942HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 943Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 944
1b831c93
AC
945* OBSOLETE configurations and files
946
947Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
948been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
949configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
950permanently REMOVED.
951
8b0e5691 952Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 953Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 954H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
955HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
956HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
957HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 958PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
959Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
960 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
961 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
962Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
963Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 964
5835abe7
NC
965* REMOVED configurations and files
966
967V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
968Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
969IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
970i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
971i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
972i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
973HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
974 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
975 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
976Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
977Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
978Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
979OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
980I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 981
a094c6fb
AC
982* MIPS $fp behavior changed
983
984The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
985the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
986context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
987address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
988The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
989
299ffc64 990*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 991
46248966
AC
992* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
993
994When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
995`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
996in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
997library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
998shared libs like mad''.
999
b9d14705 1000* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1001
b9d14705
DJ
1002Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1003the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1004arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1005powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1006
e0e9281e
JB
1007* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1008
1009GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1010and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1011they expand.
1012
dd73b9bb
AC
1013The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1014invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1015
1016The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1017macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1018
e0e9281e
JB
1019Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1020information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1021your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1022information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1023
2250ee0c
CV
1024* Multi-arched targets.
1025
6e3ba3b8
JT
1026DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1027DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1028NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1029National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1030Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1031Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1032
cd9bfe15 1033* New targets.
e33ce519 1034
456f8b9d
DB
1035Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1036
e33ce519 1037
da8ca43d
JT
1038* New native configurations
1039
1040Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1041SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1042MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1043UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1044
cd9bfe15
AC
1045* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1046
1047Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1048been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1049configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1050permanently REMOVED.
1051
92eb23c5 1052Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1053OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1054IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1055Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1056Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1057Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1058i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1059i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1060i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1061HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1062 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1063 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 1064I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 1065
db034ac5
AC
1066* OBSOLETE languages
1067
1068CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1069
cd9bfe15
AC
1070* REMOVED configurations and files
1071
1072AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1073A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1074AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1075AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1076AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1077
1078testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1079
20f01a46
DH
1080* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1081
1082This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1083commands. The default is 1024.
1084
a5941fbf
MK
1085* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1086
1087Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1088
89743e04
MS
1089* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1090
1091These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1092to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1093from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 1094
9fb14e79
JB
1095* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1096
1097The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1098including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1099of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1100
2037aebb
AC
1101*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1102
1103* New targets.
1104
1105Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
1106
1107* Bug fixes
1108
1109gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1110mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1111Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1112
1113gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1114dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1115Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1116
1117Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1118Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1119By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1120
1121i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1122avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1123By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1124
37057839 1125*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 1126
1a703748
MS
1127* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1128
1129This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1130really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1131In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1132target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1133This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1134(notably embedded) targets.
1135
cefd4ef5
MS
1136* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1137
55241689
AC
1138This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1139process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1140GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1141hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 1142
352ed7b4
MS
1143* New command line option
1144
1145GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1146
1147* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1148
1149There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1150command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1151a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1152be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1153open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1154issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1155a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1156it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1157GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1158is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1159
fe419ffc
RE
1160* Changes in ARM configurations.
1161
1162Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1163configuration is fully multi-arch.
1164
eb7cedd9
MK
1165* New native configurations
1166
fe419ffc 1167ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 1168x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 1169AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 1170Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 1171
c9f63e6b
CV
1172* New targets
1173
1174Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1175
9b4ff276
AC
1176* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1177
1178Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1179been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1180configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1181permanently REMOVED.
1182
1183AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1184A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1185AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1186AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1187AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1188
b4ceaee6 1189testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 1190
e2caac18
AC
1191* REMOVED configurations and files
1192
1193TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 1194WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
1195PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1196PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1197PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 1198Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
1199Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1200 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 1201SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 1202Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
1203Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1204ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 1205Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 1206
c2a727fa
TT
1207* Changes to command line processing
1208
1209The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1210for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1211
467d8519
TT
1212* Changes to key bindings
1213
1214There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1215
7072a954
AC
1216*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1217
1218Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1219
1220Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1221corrupted.
1222
1223Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1224
1225Numerous documentation fixes.
1226
1227Numerous testsuite fixes.
1228
34f47bc4 1229*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
1230
1231* New native configurations
1232
1233Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1234x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 1235MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
1236MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1237ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 1238s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 1239
bf64bfd6
AC
1240* New targets
1241
def90278 1242Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 1243CRIS cris-axis
55241689 1244UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 1245
17e78a56 1246* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
1247
1248x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 1249Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
1250Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1251 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
1252TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1253WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 1254Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
1255PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1256PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1257PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 1258SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
1259Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1260ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 1261Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 1262
17e78a56
AC
1263stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1264kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1265
7fcca85b
AC
1266Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1267been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1268configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1269permanently REMOVED.
1270
a196c81c 1271* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
1272
1273Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1274Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1275Pyramid pyramid-*-*
1276ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1277Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 1278ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1279
6d6b80e5 1280* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1281
6d6b80e5 1282GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1283sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1284present.
1285
bf64bfd6
AC
1286* Other news:
1287
e23194cb
EZ
1288* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1289
1290* The MI enabled by default.
1291
1292The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1293revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1294engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1295using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1296which is now deprecated.
1297
1298* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1299
1300GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1301main features are supported:
1302
1303 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1304
1305 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1306 extension;
1307
1308 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1309
1310 - a Pascal expression parser.
1311
1312However, some important features are not yet supported.
1313
1314 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1315
1316 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1317
1318 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1319 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1320
1321 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1322
1323 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1324
1325* Changes in completion.
1326
1327Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1328to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1329users expect at the shell prompt.
1330
1331Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1332`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1333program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1334files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1335be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1336considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1337name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1338
1339`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1340
1341* New platform-independent commands:
1342
1343It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1344hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1345documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1346
1347* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1348
d7275149
MK
1349Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1350revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1351many threads as your system allows you to have.
1352
e23194cb
EZ
1353Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1354
d7275149
MK
1355Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1356multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1357
1358* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1359
1360Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1361
e23194cb
EZ
1362GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1363debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1364supported.)
1365
1366* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1367
1368Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1369breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1370implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1371put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1372and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1373registers.
1374
1375The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1376debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1377watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1378
1379* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1380
1381New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1382the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1383
1384New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1385display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1386IDT.
1387
1388New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1389from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1390New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1391a given linear address.
1392
1393GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1394program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1395which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1396
1397DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1398
6c56c069
EZ
1399It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1400
e23194cb
EZ
1401* Changes in documentation.
1402
1403All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1404Documentation License.
1405
1406Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1407manual.
1408
1409TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1410
1411Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1412manual.
1413
1414The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1415documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1416hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1417
5d6640b1
AC
1418* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1419
1420The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1421``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1422contents of this file.
1423
1a1d8446
AC
1424* gdba.el deleted
1425
1426GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1427
9debab2f 1428*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1429
c63ce875
EZ
1430* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1431
1432Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1433programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1434displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1435greater level of detail.
1436
1437* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1438
1439It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1440bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1441on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1442written.
1443
1444* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1445
1446The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1447necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1448machines ``out of the box''.
1449
1450The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1451possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1452signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1453would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1454interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1455
1456It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1457standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1458even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1459and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1460terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1461
1462The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1463enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1464also works.
1465
1466DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1467GDB.
1468
1469It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1470directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1471times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1472breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1473
ed9a39eb
JM
1474* New native configurations
1475
1476ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1477PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1478
7a292a7a
SS
1479* New targets
1480
96baa820 1481Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1482x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1483PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1484TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1485
085dd6e6
JM
1486* OBSOLETE configurations
1487
1488Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1489Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1490Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1491ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1492Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1493
9debab2f
AC
1494Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1495but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1496these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1497be permanently REMOVED.
1498
5330533d
SS
1499* Gould support removed
1500
1501Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1502
bc9e5bbf
AC
1503* New features for SVR4
1504
1505On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1506without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1507load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1508
1509* Many C++ enhancements
1510
1511C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1512in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1513
adf40b2e
JM
1514* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1515
1516A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1517sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1518with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1519``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1520
1521 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1522 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1523
43e526b9
JM
1524* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1525
1526A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1527expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1528instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1529
1530The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1531added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1532
96baa820
JM
1533* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1534
1535The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1536``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1537include ``set remote P-packet''.
1538
11cf8741
JM
1539* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1540
1541The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1542accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1543``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1544
7876dd43
DB
1545* ``apropos'' command added.
1546
1547The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1548documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1549try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1550
bc9e5bbf
AC
1551* New MI interface
1552
1553A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1554interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1555process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1556"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1557enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1558
1559 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1560
c906108c
SS
1561*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1562
1563* New native configurations
1564
1565HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1566HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1567M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1568
1569* New targets
1570
1571Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1572Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1573Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1574
1575* OBSOLETE configurations
1576
1577Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1578
1579Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1580but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1581these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1582be permanently REMOVED.
1583
1584* ANSI/ISO C
1585
1586As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1587buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1588containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1589use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1590available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1591configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1592information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1593already.
1594
1595* Readline 2.2
1596
1597GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1598
1599* set extension-language
1600
1601You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1602languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1603you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1604 set extension-language .c c++
1605The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1606and their associated languages.
1607
1608* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1609
1610When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1611you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1612PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1613
1614 set processor NAME
1615
1616sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1617following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1618
1619 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1620 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1621 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1622 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1623 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1624 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1625 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1626 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1627 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1628 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1629 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1630
1631At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1632special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1633registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1634only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1635
1636* HP-UX support
1637
1638Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1639more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1640library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1641support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1642for xdb and dbx commands.
1643
1644* Catchpoints
1645
1646HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1647generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1648to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1649
1650This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1651argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1652output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1653
1654* Debugging across forks
1655
1656On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1657in the inferior.
1658
1659* TUI
1660
1661HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1662it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1663configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1664
1665* GDB remote protocol additions
1666
1667A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1668Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1669fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1670allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1671
1672For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1673full 64-bit address. The command
1674
1675 set remoteaddresssize 32
1676
1677can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1678the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1679will be discarded.
1680
1681In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1682command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1683
1684 maint packet heythere
1685
1686sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1687disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1688time.
1689
1690The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1691target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1692downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1693
1694* Tracing can collect general expressions
1695
1696You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1697further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1698doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1699
1700* mask-address variable for Mips
1701
1702For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1703a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1704of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1705
1706* Higher serial baud rates
1707
1708GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1709230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1710to achieve all of these rates.)
1711
1712* i960 simulator
1713
1714The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1715builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1716
1717
1718*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1719
1720* New native configurations
1721
1722Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1723Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1724Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1725PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1726PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1727Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1728Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1729
1730* New targets
1731
1732Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1733Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1734Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1735Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1736MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1737MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1738MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1739Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1740Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1741Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1742NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1743
1744* New debugging protocols
1745
1746ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1747M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1748DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1749PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1750PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1751Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1752
1753* DWARF 2
1754
1755All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1756format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1757information.
1758
1759* Java frontend
1760
1761GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1762only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1763
1764* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1765
1766For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1767loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1768locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1769
1770* Live range splitting
1771
1772GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1773range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1774more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1775
1776* Hurd support
1777
1778GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1779updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1780
1781* ARM Thumb support
1782
1783GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1784instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1785instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1786accordingly.
1787
1788* MIPS16 support
1789
1790GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1791instruction set.
1792
1793* Overlay support
1794
1795GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1796linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1797will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1798control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1799additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1800in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1801
1802* info symbol
1803
1804The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1805the symbol at the specified address.
1806
1807* Trace support
1808
1809The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1810asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1811extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1812includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1813file tracepoint.c for more details.
1814
1815* MIPS simulator
1816
1817Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1818by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1819of most MIPS variants.
1820
1821* Sparc simulator
1822
1823Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1824by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1825Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1826
1827* set architecture
1828
1829For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1830basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1831architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1832the possible architectures.
1833
1834*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1835
1836* New native configurations
1837
1838Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1839M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1840PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1841PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1842PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1843RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1844
1845* New targets
1846
1847ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1848I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1849MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1850MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1851PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1852Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1853Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1854
1855* PowerPC simulator
1856
1857The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1858contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1859PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1860basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1861performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1862
1863* Solaris 2.5
1864
1865GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1866
1867* Windows 95/NT native
1868
1869GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1870To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1871which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1872Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1873ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1874
1875* dont-repeat command
1876
1877If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1878command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1879useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1880extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1881
1882* Send break instead of ^C
1883
1884The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1885rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1886GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1887
1888* Remote protocol timeout
1889
1890The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1891that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1892to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1893
1894* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1895
1896By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1897loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1898stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1899when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1900in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1901
1902Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1903/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1904automatically on hpux10.
1905
1906* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1907
1908Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1909
1910* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1911
1912When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1913may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1914the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1915every character. The default value is 1050.
1916
1917* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1918
1919If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1920a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1921replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1922details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1923remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1924to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1925
1926* Speedups for remote debugging
1927
1928GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1929the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1930and more efficient S-record downloading.
1931
1932* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1933
1934GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1935Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1936
1937*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1938
1939* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1940
1941The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1942can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1943
1944* Remote targets use caching
1945
1946Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1947remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1948it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1949debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1950off' turns the the data cache off.
1951
1952* Remote targets may have threads
1953
1954The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1955in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1956gdb/remote.c for details.
1957
1958* NetROM support
1959
1960If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1961support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1962acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1963write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1964support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1965another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1966sequence is something like
1967
1968 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1969 load <prog>
1970 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1971
1972* Macintosh host
1973
1974GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1975may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1976it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1977available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1978device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1979directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1980scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1981mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1982
1983* Autoconf
1984
1985GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1986but does simplify configuration and building.
1987
1988* hpux10
1989
1990GDB now supports hpux10.
1991
1992*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1993
1994* New native configurations
1995
1996x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1997x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1998NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1999Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2000
2001* New targets
2002
2003A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2004HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2005CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2006PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2007WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2008
2009* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2010
2011GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2012possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2013filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2014the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2015if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2016
2017* Arguments to user-defined commands
2018
2019User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2020Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2021trivial example:
2022define adder
2023 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2024
2025To execute the command use:
2026adder 1 2 3
2027
2028Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2029Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2030use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2031
2032* New `if' and `while' commands
2033
2034This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2035commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2036expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2037execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2038terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2039`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2040if the expression is zero.
2041
2042* Fortran source language mode
2043
2044GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2045Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2046variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2047with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2048Fortran compilers.
2049
2050* Better HPUX support
2051
2052Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2053running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2054processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2055for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2056that behavior do the following before running the program:
2057
2058 adb -w a.out
2059 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2060 control-d
2061
2062This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2063To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2064
2065 adb -w a.out
2066 __dld_flags?W 0x4
2067 control-d
2068
2069You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2070the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2071external linkage.
2072
2073GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2074HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2075
2076* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2077
2078You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2079commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2080current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2081"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2082associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2083configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2084
2085* New DOS host serial code
2086
2087This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2088no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2089a PC's serial port.
2090
2091*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2092
2093* New "complete" command
2094
2095This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2096were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2097
2098* Trailing space optional in prompt
2099
2100"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2101allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2102
2103* Breakpoint hit counts
2104
2105"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2106has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2107can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2108to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2109less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2110that breakpoint.
2111
2112* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2113
2114"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2115an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2116arrays actually contain only short strings.
2117
2118* Shared library breakpoints
2119
2120In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2121breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2122
2123* Hardware watchpoints
2124
2125There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2126targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2127
55241689 2128Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
2129
2130* Annotations
2131
2132Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2133and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2134
2135* Improved Irix 5 support
2136
2137GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2138
2139* Improved HPPA support
2140
2141GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2142
2143* New native configurations
2144
2145Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2146HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2147Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2148RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2149
2150* New targets
2151
2152OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2153MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2154Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
2155
2156* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2157
2158There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2159This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2160
2161* Fixes
2162
2163As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2164and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2165
2166*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2167
2168* Irix 5 is now supported
2169
2170* HPPA support
2171
2172GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2173to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2174GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2175of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2176can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2177
2178
2179*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2180
2181* User visible changes:
2182
2183* Remote Debugging
2184
2185The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2186target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2187debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2188integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2189debugging info for the mips target).
2190
2191* DEC Alpha native support
2192
2193GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2194debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2195work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2196Alpha-specific notes.
2197
2198* Preliminary thread implementation
2199
2200GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2201
2202* LynxOS native and target support for 386
2203
2204This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2205to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2206for details).
2207
2208* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2209
2210This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2211mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2212call methods, ...etc.
2213
2214*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2215
2216 * User visible changes:
2217
2218Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2219supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2220other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2221somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2222
2223Filename completion now works.
2224
2225When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2226arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2227addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2228
2229All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2230vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2231should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2232your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2233to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2234
2235 * DEC alpha support
2236
2237This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2238cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2239
2240
2241*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2242
2243 * Testsuite
2244
2245This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2246The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2247via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2248
2249 * C++ demangling
2250
2251'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2252emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2253Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2254disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2255use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2256
2257 * Simulators
2258
2259GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2260So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2261Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2262
2263 * New targets supported
2264
2265H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2266H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2267SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2268Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2269IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2270
2271Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2272version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2273GO32 memory extender.
2274
2275 * New remote protocols
2276
2277MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2278
2279 * New source languages supported
2280
2281This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2282used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2283into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2284
2285
2286*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2287
2288 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2289
2290GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2291version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2292University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2293compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2294format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2295(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2296
2297Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2298
2299 * Faster and better demangling
2300
2301We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2302demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2303character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2304only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2305This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2306increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2307symbol lookups.
2308
2309`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2310from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2311compiler does not actually implement.
2312
2313 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2314
2315In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2316inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2317recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2318very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2319The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2320circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2321fix.
2322
2323The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2324release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2325
2326 * Improved configure script
2327
2328The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2329you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2330host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2331done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2332
2333We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2334version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2335`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2336The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2337only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2338We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2339
2340 * Documentation improvements
2341
2342There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2343produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2344before submitting changes.
2345
2346The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2347M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2348`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2349you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2350a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2351
2352*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2353We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2354been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2355or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2356`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2357around this problem.
2358
2359 * New features
2360
2361GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2362the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2363`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2364the target program.
2365
2366The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2367how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2368
2369 * New native hosts supported
2370
2371HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2372386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2373
2374 * New targets supported
2375
2376AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2377
2378 * New file formats supported
2379
2380BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2381HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2382
2383 * Major bug fixes
2384
2385Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2386
2387We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2388printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2389
2390We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2391for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2392release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2393
2394You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2395will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2396
2397We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2398for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2399especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2400libraries.
2401
2402The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2403information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2404command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2405any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2406when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2407
2408 * Internal improvements
2409
2410GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2411debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2412
2413GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2414Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2415symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2416contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2417shared code that handles any of them.
2418
2419 * New command line options
2420
2421We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2422
2423 * Mmalloc licensing
2424
2425The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2426General Public License.
2427
2428*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2429
2430 * Host/native/target split
2431
2432GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2433hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2434target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2435local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2436ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2437
2438The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2439GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2440is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2441code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2442any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2443built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2444handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2445
2446GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2447It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2448plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2449
2450 * New hosts supported
2451
2452HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2453386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2454386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2455
2456 * New targets supported
2457
2458Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
245968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2460
2461 * New native hosts supported
2462
2463386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2464 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2465386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2466
2467 * New file formats supported
2468
2469BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2470supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2471format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2472
2473 * New commands
2474
2475`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2476`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2477These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2478
2479`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2480
2481You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2482scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2483prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2484executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2485
2486 * C++ improvements
2487
2488We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2489info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2490symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2491
2492Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2493
2494 * Major bug fixes
2495
2496The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2497fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2498by the compiler.
2499
2500We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2501support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2502
2503John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2504slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2505that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2506purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2507the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2508mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2509
2510Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2511about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2512completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2513we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2514
2515 * AMD 29k support
2516
2517A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2518specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2519calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2520usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2521in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2522
2523We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2524Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2525of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2526resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2527
2528 * Remote interfaces
2529
2530We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2531with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2532message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2533This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2534needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2535breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2536each instruction being stepped through.
2537
2538The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2539registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2540
2541There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2542find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2543Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2544processor with a serial port.
2545
2546 * Configuration
2547
2548Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2549`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2550supported, and what files each one uses.
2551
2552 * Library changes
2553
2554There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2555disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2556Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2557disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2558
2559The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2560Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2561can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2562grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2563
2564 * Documentation
2565
2566The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2567reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2568as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2569encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2570system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2571bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2572
2573And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2574
2575
2576*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2577
2578 * Better support for C++ function names
2579
2580GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2581names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2582(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2583single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2584Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2585
2586GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2587the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2588You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2589lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2590for the list of formats.
2591
2592 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2593
2594Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2595C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2596directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2597can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2598usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2599about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2600this problem.)
2601
2602 * New 'maintenance' command
2603
2604All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2605the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2606can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2607
2608 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2609 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2610 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2611 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2612 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2613 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2614
2615The following commands are new:
2616
2617 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2618 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2619 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2620
2621 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2622
2623We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2624(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2625be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2626read after argv processing.
2627
2628 * New hosts supported
2629
2630Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2631
55241689 2632GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2633
2634We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2635is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2636for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2637masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2638fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2639It costs extra.
2640
2641 * New targets supported
2642
2643Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2644
2645 * More smarts about finding #include files
2646
2647GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2648all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2649greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2650especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2651the one that contains your sources.
2652
2653We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2654breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2655try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2656
2657 * Interesting infernals change
2658
2659GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2660section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2661target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2662stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2663
2664 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2665
2666There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2667 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2668 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2669
2670See the ChangeLog for details.
2671
2672*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2673
2674 * New machines supported (host and target)
2675
2676IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2677
2678SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2679
2680 * New malloc package
2681
2682GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2683Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2684capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2685This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2686pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2687more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2688
2689 * info proc
2690
2691The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2692'help info proc' for details.
2693
2694 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2695
2696The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2697Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2698possible.
2699
2700 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2701
2702Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2703support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2704conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2705environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2706that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2707in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2708
2709 * Cross byte order fixes
2710
2711Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2712targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2713
2714 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2715
2716If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2717system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2718`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2719program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2720called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2721Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2722and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2723the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2724option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2725starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2726
2727You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2728the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2729information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2730slower, but makes future operations faster.
2731
2732The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2733build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2734A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2735use is:
2736
2737 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2738
2739The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2740It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2741shared across multiple host platforms.
2742
2743 * longjmp() handling
2744
2745GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2746siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2747all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2748platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2749
2750 * Solaris 2.0
2751
2752Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2753this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2754reading symbols.
2755
2756 * Bug fixes
2757
2758As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2759People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2760crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2761
2762*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2763
2764 * New machines supported (host and target)
2765
2766SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2767 (except core files)
2768BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2769Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2770
2771 * New machines supported (target)
2772
2773AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2774
2775 * C++ support
2776
2777GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2778The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2779per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2780
2781GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2782`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2783extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2784good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2785will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2786released.
2787
2788 * New features for SVR4
2789
2790GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2791shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2792only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2793
2794The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2795on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2796it prints the address mappings of the process.
2797
2798If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2799bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2800
2801 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2802
2803Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2804now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2805skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2806make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2807same code linked statically.
2808
2809 * New Getopt
2810
2811GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2812version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2813continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2814Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2815added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2816future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2817
2818 * Bugs fixed
2819
2820The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2821Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2822See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2823
2824
2825*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2826
2827 * New machines supported (host and target)
2828
2829Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2830NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2831Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2832
2833 * Almost SCO Unix support
2834
2835We had hoped to support:
2836SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2837(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2838that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2839about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2840
2841 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2842
2843GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2844debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2845is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2846send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2847reqired (if any).
2848
2849 * New Readline
2850
2851GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2852is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2853required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2854
2855 * Bugs fixed
2856
2857The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2858Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2859See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2860
2861 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2862
2863GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2864supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2865symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2866
2867Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2868mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2869debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2870mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2871version 2.
2872
2873Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2874really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2875line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2876variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2877situation somewhat.
2878
2879When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2880However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2881methods.
2882
2883We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2884DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2885encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2886
2887
2888*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2889
2890 * Improved configuration
2891
2892Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2893Porting BFD is simpler.
2894
2895 * Stepping improved
2896
2897The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2898of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2899in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2900function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2901
2902 * Bug fixing
2903
2904Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2905
2906 * New host supported (not target)
2907
2908Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2909
2910
2911*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2912
2913 * Multiple source language support
2914
2915GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2916It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2917and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2918language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2919You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2920`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2921
2922 * GDB and Modula-2
2923
2924GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2925currently under development at the State University of New York at
2926Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2927continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2928
2929Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2930debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2931symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2932
2933There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2934in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2935
2936 * set write on/off
2937
2938GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2939a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2940the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2941by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2942effect immediately.
2943
2944 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2945
2946When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2947shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2948The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2949examining core files.
2950
2951 * set listsize
2952
2953You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2954The default is 10.
2955
2956 * New machines supported (host and target)
2957
2958SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2959Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2960Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2961
2962 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2963
2964IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2965
2966 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2967
2968AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2969AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2970Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2971
2972 * New remote interfaces
2973
2974AMD 29000 Adapt
2975AMD 29000 Minimon
2976
2977
2978*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2979
2980 * New Facilities
2981
2982Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2983
2984Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2985target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2986is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2987remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2988remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2989also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2990using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2991stub on the target system.
2992
2993New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2994
2995GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2996library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2997object file types such as a.out and coff.
2998
2999There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3000refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3001
3002
3003 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3004
3005All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3006by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3007
3008For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3009``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3010Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3011
3012What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3013print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3014will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3015all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3016
3017confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3018 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3019 it is already running. Default is ON.
3020
3021editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3022 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3023 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3024 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3025 Default is ON.
3026
3027history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3028 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3029 or the value of the environment variable
3030 GDBHISTFILE.
3031
3032history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3033 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3034 HISTSIZE.
3035
3036history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3037 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3038 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3039
3040history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3041 history expansion will be performed on
3042 command line input. The default is OFF.
3043
3044radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3045 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3046 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3047
3048height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3049 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3050 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3051 variable TERM.
3052
3053width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3054 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3055 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3056 variable TERM.
3057
3058Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3059``set width'' instead.
3060
3061print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3062 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3063 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3064 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3065
3066print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3067 is OFF.
3068
3069print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3070 "raw" form if off.
3071
3072print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3073 like instructions.
3074
3075print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3076
3077
3078 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3079
3080The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3081new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3082are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3083window.
3084
3085
3086 * Support for Shared Libraries
3087
3088GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3089Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3090before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3091happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3092At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3093from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3094shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3095It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3096
3097sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3098 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3099 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3100
3101info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3102
3103
3104 * Watchpoints
3105
3106A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3107expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3108tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3109quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3110problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3111more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3112
3113watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3114
3115info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3116
3117delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3118disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3119enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3120
3121
3122 * C++ multiple inheritance
3123
3124When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3125for C++ programs.
3126
3127 * C++ exception handling
3128
3129Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3130ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3131the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3132handler's context).
3133
3134catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3135 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3136 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3137
3138info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3139 current stack frame.
3140
3141
3142 * Minor command changes
3143
3144The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3145command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3146is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3147
3148The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3149at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3150frames without printing.
3151
3152 * New directory command
3153
3154'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3155The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3156about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3157with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3158find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3159
3160 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3161
3162For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3163for more details.
3164
3165GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3166two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3167Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3168where the program that you are debugging will run.