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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.5
5
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6* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
7(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
8running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
9
10* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
11Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
12supported.
13
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14* New commands
15
16set substitute-path
17unset substitute-path
18show substitute-path
19 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
20 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
21 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
22 between compilation and debugging.
23
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24set trace-commands
25show trace-commands
26 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
27 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
28 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
29
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30* REMOVED features
31
32The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
33
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34Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
35an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
36
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37The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
38
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39* New remote packets
40
41qSupported:
42 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
43 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
44 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
45 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
46 target.
47
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48qXfer:auxv:read:
49 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
50 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
51
52* Removed remote packets
53
54qPart:auxv:read:
55 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
56 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
57
e374b601 58*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 59
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60* New targets
61
62Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
63
64Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
65
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66* New commands
67
68init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
69 only if it doesn't already have a value.
70
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71The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
72
73checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
74
75restart <n> Return the program state to a
76 previously saved state.
77
78info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
79
80delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
81
82set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
83 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
84
85info forks List forks of the user program that
86 are available to be debugged.
87
88fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
89 forks of the user program that are
90 available to be debugged.
91
92delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
93 that are available to be debugged (and
94 kill the forked process).
95
96detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
97 that are available to be debugged (and
98 allow the process to continue).
99
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100* New architecture
101
102Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
103
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104* Improved Windows host support
105
106GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
107native console support, and remote communications using either
108network sockets or serial ports.
109
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110* Improved Modula-2 language support
111
112GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
113basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
114pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
115printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
116written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
117GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
118
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119* REMOVED features
120
121The ARM rdi-share module.
122
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123The Netware NLM debug server.
124
53e5f3cf 125*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 126
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127* New native configurations
128
02a677ac 129OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
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130OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
131
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132* New targets
133
134Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
135
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136* New command line options
137
138--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
139--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
140 the child (debugged) program exited with.
141--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
142 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
143 specified multiple times and in conjunction
144 with the --command (-x) option.
145
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146* Deprecated commands removed
147
148The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
149removed:
150
151 Command Replacement
152 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
153 othernames set arm disassembler
154 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
155 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
156 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
157 regs info registers
158
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159* New BSD user-level threads support
160
161It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
162library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
163configurations are:
164
165FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
166FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
167OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
168
169Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
170are not yet supported.
171
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172* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
173(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
174
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175* REMOVED configurations and files
176
177VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 178Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 179National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 180
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181* New "set print array-indexes" command
182
183After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
184when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
185behavior.
186
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187* VAX floating point support
188
189GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
190
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191* User-defined command support
192
193In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
194to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
195section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
196
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197*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
198
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199* New command line option
200
201GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
202debugging.
203
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204* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
205
206GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
207information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
208by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
209proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
210to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 211
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212* Internationalization
213
214When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
215internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
216continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
217
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218* Ada
219
220Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
221implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
222into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
223
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224* New native configurations
225
226GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
227
228* Remote 'p' packet
229
230GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
231packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
232
233* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
234
235GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
236The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
237features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
238i386 application).
239
240GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
241compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
242continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
243configurations:
244
245hppa-*-hpux
246ia64-*-aix
247mips-*-irix*
248*-*-lynx
249mips-*-linux-gnu
250sds protocol
251xdr protocol
252powerpc bdm protocol
253
254Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
255made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
256
257* OBSOLETE configurations and files
258
259Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
260been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
261configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
262permanently REMOVED.
263
264h8300-*-*
265mcore-*-*
266mn10300-*-*
267ns32k-*-*
268sh64-*-*
269v850-*-*
270
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271*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
272
273* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
274
275When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
276heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
277been fixed.
278
279* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
280
281When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
282fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
283IRIX long double values).
284
285* VAX and "next"
286
287A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
288command. This problem has been fixed.
289
860660cb 290*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 291
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292* Fix for ``many threads''
293
294On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
295rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
296error message:
297
298 ptrace: No such process.
299 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
300
301This problem has been fixed.
302
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303* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
304
305Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
306GDB to dump core).
307
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308* New ``start'' command.
309
310This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
311
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312* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
313
314Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
315live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
316platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
317
318FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
319FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
320NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
321NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
322NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
323OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
324OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
325OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
326OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
327
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328* Signal trampoline code overhauled
329
330Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
331These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
332of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
333call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
334signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
335
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336Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
337features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
338include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 339
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340* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
341
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342* New native configurations
343
97dc871c 344GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 345OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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346OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
347OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 348OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 349NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 350OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 351
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352* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
353
354GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
355The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
356including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
357migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
358compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
359work, was also included.
360
361GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
362module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
363
364h8300-*-*
365mcore-*-*
366mn10300-*-*
367ns32k-*-*
368sh64-*-*
369v850-*-*
370xstormy16-*-*
371
372Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
373made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
374
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375* REMOVED configurations and files
376
377Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
378Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
379Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
380Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
381Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
382AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
383Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
384decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
385riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
386sonymips mips-sony-*
387sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
388
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389*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
390
391* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
392
393The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
394GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
395command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
396program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
397with GDB".
398
399* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
400
401Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
402libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
403cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
404GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
405shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
406the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
407are created.
408
409Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
410
411* Fixed ISO-C build problems
412
413The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
414non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
415compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
416
417* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
418
419Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
420wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
421
422* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
423
424The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
425permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
426systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
427
428* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
429
430Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
431has been updated to use constant array sizes.
432
433* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
434
435GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
436its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
437panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
438
439* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
440
441When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
442by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
443not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
444
faae5abe 445*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 446
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447* Removed --with-mmalloc
448
449Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
450conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
451
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452* Changes in AMD64 configurations
453
454The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
455the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
456and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
457you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
458
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459* Revised SPARC target
460
461The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
462FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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463support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
464from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
465(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 466
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467* New C++ demangler
468
469GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
470names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
471with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
472programs.
473
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474* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
475
476GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
477arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
478encountered these.
479
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480* C++ nested types and namespaces
481
482GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
483improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
484is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
485Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
486namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
487"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
488frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
489if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
490GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
491
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492* New native configurations
493
494NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 495OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 496OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
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497OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
498OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 499
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500* New debugging protocols
501
502M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
503
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504* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
505
506The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
507and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
508tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
509
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510* OBSOLETE configurations and files
511
512Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
513been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
514configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
515permanently REMOVED.
516
517Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
518Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
519Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
520Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
521Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
522AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
523Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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524decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
525riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
526sonymips mips-sony-*
527sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 528
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529* REMOVED configurations and files
530
531SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
532SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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533Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
534Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
535H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
536HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
537HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
538HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
539PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 540386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
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541Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
542 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
543 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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544SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
545SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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546Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
547Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 548
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549*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
550
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551* Objective-C
552
553Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
554integrated into GDB.
555
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556* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
557
558DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
559information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
560By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
561backtraces.
562
563The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
564have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
565DWARF 2 CFI support.
566
567* Hosted file I/O.
568
569GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
570file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
571remote protocol documentation for details.
572
573* All targets using the new architecture framework.
574
575All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
576architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
577to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
578ppc32 on ppc64).
579
580* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
581
582GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
583per-thread variables.
584
585* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
586
587GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
588GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
589
590* Separate debug info.
591
592GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
593automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
594of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
595system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
596and optional debug files.
597
598* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
599
600DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
601describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
602debugger.
603
604GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
605for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
606
607* Java
608
609A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
610Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
611considered "useable".
612
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613* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
614
615The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
616commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
617kernel.
618
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619* GDB supports logging output to a file
620
621There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
622used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 623
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624* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
625
626The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
627disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
628command.
629
e286caf2 630* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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631
632The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
633registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
634
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635* Profiling support
636
637A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
638be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
639session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
640"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
641data, for more informative profiling results.
642
da0f9dcd
AC
643* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
644
645The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
646option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 647"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
648
649Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
650removed.
651
fb9b6b35
JJ
652Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
653Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
654Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
655 in a subsequent -var-update.
656
954a4db8
MK
657* New native configurations.
658
659FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
660
6760f9e6
JB
661* Multi-arched targets.
662
b4263afa 663HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 664Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 665
1b831c93
AC
666* OBSOLETE configurations and files
667
668Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
669been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
670configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
671permanently REMOVED.
672
8b0e5691 673Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 674Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 675H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
676HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
677HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
678HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 679PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
680Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
681 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
682 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
683Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
684Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 685
5835abe7
NC
686* REMOVED configurations and files
687
688V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
689Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
690IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
691i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
692i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
693i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
694HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
695 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
696 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
697Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
698Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
699Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
700OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
701I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 702
a094c6fb
AC
703* MIPS $fp behavior changed
704
705The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
706the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
707context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
708address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
709The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
710
299ffc64 711*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 712
46248966
AC
713* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
714
715When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
716`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
717in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
718library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
719shared libs like mad''.
720
b9d14705 721* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 722
b9d14705
DJ
723Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
724the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
725arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
726powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 727
e0e9281e
JB
728* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
729
730GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
731and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
732they expand.
733
dd73b9bb
AC
734The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
735invocations in expression, and shows the result.
736
737The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
738macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
739
e0e9281e
JB
740Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
741information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
742your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
743information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
744
2250ee0c
CV
745* Multi-arched targets.
746
6e3ba3b8
JT
747DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
748DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 749NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 750National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
751Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
752Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 753
cd9bfe15 754* New targets.
e33ce519 755
456f8b9d
DB
756Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
757
e33ce519 758
da8ca43d
JT
759* New native configurations
760
761Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 762SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 763MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 764UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 765
cd9bfe15
AC
766* OBSOLETE configurations and files
767
768Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
769been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
770configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
771permanently REMOVED.
772
92eb23c5 773Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 774OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 775IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 776Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 777Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 778Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
779i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
780i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
781i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
782HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
783 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
784 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 785I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 786
db034ac5
AC
787* OBSOLETE languages
788
789CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
790
cd9bfe15
AC
791* REMOVED configurations and files
792
793AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
794A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
795AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
796AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
797AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
798
799testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
800
20f01a46
DH
801* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
802
803This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
804commands. The default is 1024.
805
a5941fbf
MK
806* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
807
808Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
809
89743e04
MS
810* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
811
812These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
813to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
814from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 815
9fb14e79
JB
816* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
817
818The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
819including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
820of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
821
2037aebb
AC
822*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
823
824* New targets.
825
826Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
827
828* Bug fixes
829
830gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
831mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
832Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
833
834gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
835dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
836Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
837
838Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
839Surprisingly enough, it works now.
840By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
841
842i386 hardware watchpoint support:
843avoid misses on second run for some targets.
844By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
845
37057839 846*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 847
1a703748
MS
848* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
849
850This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
851really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
852In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
853target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
854This can be a significant performance improvement on some
855(notably embedded) targets.
856
cefd4ef5
MS
857* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
858
55241689
AC
859This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
860process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
861GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
862hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 863
352ed7b4
MS
864* New command line option
865
866GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
867
868* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
869
870There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
871command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
872a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
873be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
874open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
875issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
876a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
877it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
878GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
879is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
880
fe419ffc
RE
881* Changes in ARM configurations.
882
883Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
884configuration is fully multi-arch.
885
eb7cedd9
MK
886* New native configurations
887
fe419ffc 888ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 889x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 890AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 891Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 892
c9f63e6b
CV
893* New targets
894
895Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
896
9b4ff276
AC
897* OBSOLETE configurations and files
898
899Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
900been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
901configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
902permanently REMOVED.
903
904AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
905A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
906AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
907AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
908AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
909
b4ceaee6 910testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 911
e2caac18
AC
912* REMOVED configurations and files
913
914TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 915WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
916PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
917PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
918PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 919Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
920Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
921 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 922SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 923Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
924Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
925ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 926Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 927
c2a727fa
TT
928* Changes to command line processing
929
930The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
931for the inferior from gdb's command line.
932
467d8519
TT
933* Changes to key bindings
934
935There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
936
7072a954
AC
937*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
938
939Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
940
941Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
942corrupted.
943
944Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
945
946Numerous documentation fixes.
947
948Numerous testsuite fixes.
949
34f47bc4 950*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
951
952* New native configurations
953
954Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
955x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 956MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
957MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
958ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 959s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 960
bf64bfd6
AC
961* New targets
962
def90278 963Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 964CRIS cris-axis
55241689 965UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 966
17e78a56 967* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
968
969x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 970Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
971Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
972 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
973TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
974WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 975Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
976PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
977PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
978PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 979SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
980Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
981ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 982Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 983
17e78a56
AC
984stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
985kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
986
7fcca85b
AC
987Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
988been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
989configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
990permanently REMOVED.
991
a196c81c 992* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
993
994Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
995Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
996Pyramid pyramid-*-*
997ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
998Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 999ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 1000
6d6b80e5 1001* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 1002
6d6b80e5 1003GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
1004sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1005present.
1006
bf64bfd6
AC
1007* Other news:
1008
e23194cb
EZ
1009* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1010
1011* The MI enabled by default.
1012
1013The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1014revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1015engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1016using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1017which is now deprecated.
1018
1019* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1020
1021GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1022main features are supported:
1023
1024 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1025
1026 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1027 extension;
1028
1029 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1030
1031 - a Pascal expression parser.
1032
1033However, some important features are not yet supported.
1034
1035 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1036
1037 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1038
1039 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1040 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1041
1042 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1043
1044 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1045
1046* Changes in completion.
1047
1048Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1049to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1050users expect at the shell prompt.
1051
1052Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1053`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1054program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1055files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1056be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1057considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1058name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1059
1060`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1061
1062* New platform-independent commands:
1063
1064It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1065hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1066documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1067
1068* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1069
d7275149
MK
1070Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1071revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1072many threads as your system allows you to have.
1073
e23194cb
EZ
1074Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1075
d7275149
MK
1076Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1077multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1078
1079* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1080
1081Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1082
e23194cb
EZ
1083GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1084debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1085supported.)
1086
1087* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1088
1089Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1090breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1091implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1092put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1093and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1094registers.
1095
1096The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1097debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1098watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1099
1100* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1101
1102New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1103the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1104
1105New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1106display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1107IDT.
1108
1109New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1110from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1111New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1112a given linear address.
1113
1114GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1115program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1116which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1117
1118DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1119
6c56c069
EZ
1120It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1121
e23194cb
EZ
1122* Changes in documentation.
1123
1124All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1125Documentation License.
1126
1127Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1128manual.
1129
1130TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1131
1132Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1133manual.
1134
1135The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1136documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1137hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1138
5d6640b1
AC
1139* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1140
1141The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1142``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1143contents of this file.
1144
1a1d8446
AC
1145* gdba.el deleted
1146
1147GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1148
9debab2f 1149*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1150
c63ce875
EZ
1151* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1152
1153Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1154programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1155displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1156greater level of detail.
1157
1158* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1159
1160It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1161bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1162on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1163written.
1164
1165* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1166
1167The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1168necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1169machines ``out of the box''.
1170
1171The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1172possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1173signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1174would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1175interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1176
1177It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1178standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1179even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1180and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1181terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1182
1183The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1184enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1185also works.
1186
1187DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1188GDB.
1189
1190It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1191directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1192times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1193breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1194
ed9a39eb
JM
1195* New native configurations
1196
1197ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1198PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1199
7a292a7a
SS
1200* New targets
1201
96baa820 1202Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1203x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1204PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1205TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1206
085dd6e6
JM
1207* OBSOLETE configurations
1208
1209Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1210Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1211Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1212ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1213Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1214
9debab2f
AC
1215Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1216but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1217these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1218be permanently REMOVED.
1219
5330533d
SS
1220* Gould support removed
1221
1222Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1223
bc9e5bbf
AC
1224* New features for SVR4
1225
1226On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1227without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1228load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1229
1230* Many C++ enhancements
1231
1232C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1233in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1234
adf40b2e
JM
1235* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1236
1237A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1238sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1239with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1240``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1241
1242 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1243 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1244
43e526b9
JM
1245* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1246
1247A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1248expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1249instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1250
1251The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1252added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1253
96baa820
JM
1254* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1255
1256The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1257``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1258include ``set remote P-packet''.
1259
11cf8741
JM
1260* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1261
1262The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1263accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1264``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1265
7876dd43
DB
1266* ``apropos'' command added.
1267
1268The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1269documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1270try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1271
bc9e5bbf
AC
1272* New MI interface
1273
1274A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1275interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1276process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1277"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1278enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1279
1280 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1281
c906108c
SS
1282*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1283
1284* New native configurations
1285
1286HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1287HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1288M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1289
1290* New targets
1291
1292Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1293Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1294Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1295
1296* OBSOLETE configurations
1297
1298Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1299
1300Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1301but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1302these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1303be permanently REMOVED.
1304
1305* ANSI/ISO C
1306
1307As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1308buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1309containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1310use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1311available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1312configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1313information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1314already.
1315
1316* Readline 2.2
1317
1318GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1319
1320* set extension-language
1321
1322You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1323languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1324you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1325 set extension-language .c c++
1326The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1327and their associated languages.
1328
1329* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1330
1331When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1332you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1333PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1334
1335 set processor NAME
1336
1337sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1338following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1339
1340 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1341 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1342 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1343 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1344 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1345 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1346 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1347 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1348 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1349 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1350 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1351
1352At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1353special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1354registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1355only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1356
1357* HP-UX support
1358
1359Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1360more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1361library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1362support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1363for xdb and dbx commands.
1364
1365* Catchpoints
1366
1367HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1368generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1369to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1370
1371This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1372argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1373output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1374
1375* Debugging across forks
1376
1377On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1378in the inferior.
1379
1380* TUI
1381
1382HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1383it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1384configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1385
1386* GDB remote protocol additions
1387
1388A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1389Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1390fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1391allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1392
1393For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1394full 64-bit address. The command
1395
1396 set remoteaddresssize 32
1397
1398can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1399the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1400will be discarded.
1401
1402In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1403command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1404
1405 maint packet heythere
1406
1407sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1408disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1409time.
1410
1411The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1412target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1413downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1414
1415* Tracing can collect general expressions
1416
1417You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1418further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1419doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1420
1421* mask-address variable for Mips
1422
1423For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1424a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1425of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1426
1427* Higher serial baud rates
1428
1429GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1430230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1431to achieve all of these rates.)
1432
1433* i960 simulator
1434
1435The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1436builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1437
1438
1439*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1440
1441* New native configurations
1442
1443Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1444Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1445Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1446PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1447PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1448Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1449Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1450
1451* New targets
1452
1453Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1454Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1455Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1456Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1457MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1458MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1459MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1460Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1461Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1462Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1463NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1464
1465* New debugging protocols
1466
1467ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1468M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1469DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1470PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1471PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1472Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1473
1474* DWARF 2
1475
1476All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1477format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1478information.
1479
1480* Java frontend
1481
1482GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1483only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1484
1485* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1486
1487For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1488loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1489locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1490
1491* Live range splitting
1492
1493GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1494range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1495more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1496
1497* Hurd support
1498
1499GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1500updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1501
1502* ARM Thumb support
1503
1504GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1505instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1506instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1507accordingly.
1508
1509* MIPS16 support
1510
1511GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1512instruction set.
1513
1514* Overlay support
1515
1516GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1517linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1518will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1519control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1520additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1521in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1522
1523* info symbol
1524
1525The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1526the symbol at the specified address.
1527
1528* Trace support
1529
1530The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1531asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1532extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1533includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1534file tracepoint.c for more details.
1535
1536* MIPS simulator
1537
1538Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1539by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1540of most MIPS variants.
1541
1542* Sparc simulator
1543
1544Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1545by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1546Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1547
1548* set architecture
1549
1550For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1551basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1552architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1553the possible architectures.
1554
1555*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1556
1557* New native configurations
1558
1559Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1560M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1561PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1562PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1563PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1564RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1565
1566* New targets
1567
1568ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1569I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1570MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1571MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1572PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1573Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1574Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1575
1576* PowerPC simulator
1577
1578The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1579contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1580PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1581basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1582performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1583
1584* Solaris 2.5
1585
1586GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1587
1588* Windows 95/NT native
1589
1590GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1591To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1592which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1593Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1594ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1595
1596* dont-repeat command
1597
1598If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1599command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1600useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1601extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1602
1603* Send break instead of ^C
1604
1605The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1606rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1607GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1608
1609* Remote protocol timeout
1610
1611The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1612that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1613to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1614
1615* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1616
1617By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1618loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1619stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1620when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1621in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1622
1623Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1624/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1625automatically on hpux10.
1626
1627* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1628
1629Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1630
1631* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1632
1633When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1634may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1635the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1636every character. The default value is 1050.
1637
1638* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1639
1640If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1641a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1642replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1643details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1644remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1645to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1646
1647* Speedups for remote debugging
1648
1649GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1650the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1651and more efficient S-record downloading.
1652
1653* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1654
1655GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1656Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1657
1658*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1659
1660* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1661
1662The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1663can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1664
1665* Remote targets use caching
1666
1667Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1668remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1669it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1670debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1671off' turns the the data cache off.
1672
1673* Remote targets may have threads
1674
1675The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1676in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1677gdb/remote.c for details.
1678
1679* NetROM support
1680
1681If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1682support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1683acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1684write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1685support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1686another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1687sequence is something like
1688
1689 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1690 load <prog>
1691 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1692
1693* Macintosh host
1694
1695GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1696may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1697it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1698available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1699device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1700directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1701scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1702mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1703
1704* Autoconf
1705
1706GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1707but does simplify configuration and building.
1708
1709* hpux10
1710
1711GDB now supports hpux10.
1712
1713*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1714
1715* New native configurations
1716
1717x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1718x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1719NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1720Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1721
1722* New targets
1723
1724A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1725HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1726CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1727PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1728WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1729
1730* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1731
1732GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1733possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1734filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1735the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1736if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1737
1738* Arguments to user-defined commands
1739
1740User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1741Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1742trivial example:
1743define adder
1744 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1745
1746To execute the command use:
1747adder 1 2 3
1748
1749Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1750Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1751use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1752
1753* New `if' and `while' commands
1754
1755This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1756commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1757expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1758execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1759terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1760`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1761if the expression is zero.
1762
1763* Fortran source language mode
1764
1765GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1766Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1767variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1768with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1769Fortran compilers.
1770
1771* Better HPUX support
1772
1773Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1774running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1775processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1776for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1777that behavior do the following before running the program:
1778
1779 adb -w a.out
1780 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1781 control-d
1782
1783This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1784To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1785
1786 adb -w a.out
1787 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1788 control-d
1789
1790You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1791the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1792external linkage.
1793
1794GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1795HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1796
1797* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1798
1799You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1800commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1801current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1802"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1803associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1804configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1805
1806* New DOS host serial code
1807
1808This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1809no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1810a PC's serial port.
1811
1812*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1813
1814* New "complete" command
1815
1816This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1817were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1818
1819* Trailing space optional in prompt
1820
1821"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1822allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1823
1824* Breakpoint hit counts
1825
1826"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1827has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1828can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1829to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1830less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1831that breakpoint.
1832
1833* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1834
1835"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1836an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1837arrays actually contain only short strings.
1838
1839* Shared library breakpoints
1840
1841In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1842breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1843
1844* Hardware watchpoints
1845
1846There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1847targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1848
55241689 1849Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1850
1851* Annotations
1852
1853Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1854and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1855
1856* Improved Irix 5 support
1857
1858GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1859
1860* Improved HPPA support
1861
1862GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1863
1864* New native configurations
1865
1866Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1867HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1868Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1869RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1870
1871* New targets
1872
1873OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1874MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1875Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1876
1877* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1878
1879There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1880This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1881
1882* Fixes
1883
1884As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1885and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1886
1887*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1888
1889* Irix 5 is now supported
1890
1891* HPPA support
1892
1893GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1894to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1895GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1896of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1897can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1898
1899
1900*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1901
1902* User visible changes:
1903
1904* Remote Debugging
1905
1906The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1907target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1908debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1909integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1910debugging info for the mips target).
1911
1912* DEC Alpha native support
1913
1914GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1915debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1916work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1917Alpha-specific notes.
1918
1919* Preliminary thread implementation
1920
1921GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1922
1923* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1924
1925This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1926to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1927for details).
1928
1929* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1930
1931This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1932mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1933call methods, ...etc.
1934
1935*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1936
1937 * User visible changes:
1938
1939Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1940supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1941other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1942somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1943
1944Filename completion now works.
1945
1946When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1947arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1948addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1949
1950All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1951vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1952should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1953your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1954to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1955
1956 * DEC alpha support
1957
1958This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1959cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1960
1961
1962*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1963
1964 * Testsuite
1965
1966This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1967The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1968via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1969
1970 * C++ demangling
1971
1972'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1973emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1974Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1975disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1976use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1977
1978 * Simulators
1979
1980GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1981So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1982Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1983
1984 * New targets supported
1985
1986H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1987H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1988SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1989Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1990IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1991
1992Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1993version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1994GO32 memory extender.
1995
1996 * New remote protocols
1997
1998MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1999
2000 * New source languages supported
2001
2002This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2003used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2004into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2005
2006
2007*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2008
2009 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2010
2011GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2012version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2013University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2014compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2015format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2016(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2017
2018Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2019
2020 * Faster and better demangling
2021
2022We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2023demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2024character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2025only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2026This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2027increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2028symbol lookups.
2029
2030`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2031from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2032compiler does not actually implement.
2033
2034 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2035
2036In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2037inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2038recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2039very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2040The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2041circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2042fix.
2043
2044The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2045release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2046
2047 * Improved configure script
2048
2049The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2050you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2051host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2052done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2053
2054We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2055version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2056`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2057The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2058only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2059We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2060
2061 * Documentation improvements
2062
2063There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2064produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2065before submitting changes.
2066
2067The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2068M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2069`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2070you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2071a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2072
2073*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2074We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2075been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2076or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2077`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2078around this problem.
2079
2080 * New features
2081
2082GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2083the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2084`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2085the target program.
2086
2087The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2088how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2089
2090 * New native hosts supported
2091
2092HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2093386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2094
2095 * New targets supported
2096
2097AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2098
2099 * New file formats supported
2100
2101BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2102HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2103
2104 * Major bug fixes
2105
2106Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2107
2108We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2109printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2110
2111We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2112for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2113release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2114
2115You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2116will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2117
2118We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2119for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2120especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2121libraries.
2122
2123The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2124information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2125command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2126any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2127when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2128
2129 * Internal improvements
2130
2131GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2132debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2133
2134GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2135Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2136symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2137contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2138shared code that handles any of them.
2139
2140 * New command line options
2141
2142We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2143
2144 * Mmalloc licensing
2145
2146The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2147General Public License.
2148
2149*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2150
2151 * Host/native/target split
2152
2153GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2154hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2155target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2156local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2157ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2158
2159The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2160GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2161is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2162code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2163any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2164built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2165handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2166
2167GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2168It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2169plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2170
2171 * New hosts supported
2172
2173HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2174386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2175386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2176
2177 * New targets supported
2178
2179Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
218068030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2181
2182 * New native hosts supported
2183
2184386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2185 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2186386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2187
2188 * New file formats supported
2189
2190BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2191supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2192format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2193
2194 * New commands
2195
2196`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2197`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2198These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2199
2200`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2201
2202You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2203scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2204prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2205executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2206
2207 * C++ improvements
2208
2209We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2210info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2211symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2212
2213Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2214
2215 * Major bug fixes
2216
2217The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2218fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2219by the compiler.
2220
2221We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2222support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2223
2224John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2225slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2226that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2227purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2228the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2229mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2230
2231Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2232about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2233completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2234we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2235
2236 * AMD 29k support
2237
2238A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2239specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2240calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2241usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2242in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2243
2244We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2245Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2246of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2247resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2248
2249 * Remote interfaces
2250
2251We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2252with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2253message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2254This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2255needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2256breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2257each instruction being stepped through.
2258
2259The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2260registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2261
2262There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2263find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2264Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2265processor with a serial port.
2266
2267 * Configuration
2268
2269Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2270`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2271supported, and what files each one uses.
2272
2273 * Library changes
2274
2275There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2276disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2277Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2278disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2279
2280The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2281Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2282can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2283grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2284
2285 * Documentation
2286
2287The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2288reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2289as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2290encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2291system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2292bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2293
2294And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2295
2296
2297*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2298
2299 * Better support for C++ function names
2300
2301GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2302names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2303(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2304single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2305Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2306
2307GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2308the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2309You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2310lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2311for the list of formats.
2312
2313 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2314
2315Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2316C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2317directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2318can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2319usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2320about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2321this problem.)
2322
2323 * New 'maintenance' command
2324
2325All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2326the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2327can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2328
2329 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2330 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2331 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2332 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2333 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2334 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2335
2336The following commands are new:
2337
2338 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2339 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2340 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2341
2342 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2343
2344We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2345(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2346be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2347read after argv processing.
2348
2349 * New hosts supported
2350
2351Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2352
55241689 2353GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2354
2355We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2356is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2357for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2358masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2359fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2360It costs extra.
2361
2362 * New targets supported
2363
2364Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2365
2366 * More smarts about finding #include files
2367
2368GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2369all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2370greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2371especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2372the one that contains your sources.
2373
2374We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2375breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2376try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2377
2378 * Interesting infernals change
2379
2380GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2381section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2382target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2383stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2384
2385 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2386
2387There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2388 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2389 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2390
2391See the ChangeLog for details.
2392
2393*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2394
2395 * New machines supported (host and target)
2396
2397IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2398
2399SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2400
2401 * New malloc package
2402
2403GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2404Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2405capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2406This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2407pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2408more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2409
2410 * info proc
2411
2412The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2413'help info proc' for details.
2414
2415 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2416
2417The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2418Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2419possible.
2420
2421 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2422
2423Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2424support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2425conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2426environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2427that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2428in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2429
2430 * Cross byte order fixes
2431
2432Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2433targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2434
2435 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2436
2437If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2438system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2439`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2440program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2441called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2442Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2443and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2444the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2445option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2446starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2447
2448You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2449the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2450information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2451slower, but makes future operations faster.
2452
2453The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2454build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2455A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2456use is:
2457
2458 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2459
2460The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2461It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2462shared across multiple host platforms.
2463
2464 * longjmp() handling
2465
2466GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2467siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2468all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2469platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2470
2471 * Solaris 2.0
2472
2473Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2474this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2475reading symbols.
2476
2477 * Bug fixes
2478
2479As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2480People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2481crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2482
2483*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2484
2485 * New machines supported (host and target)
2486
2487SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2488 (except core files)
2489BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2490Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2491
2492 * New machines supported (target)
2493
2494AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2495
2496 * C++ support
2497
2498GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2499The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2500per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2501
2502GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2503`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2504extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2505good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2506will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2507released.
2508
2509 * New features for SVR4
2510
2511GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2512shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2513only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2514
2515The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2516on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2517it prints the address mappings of the process.
2518
2519If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2520bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2521
2522 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2523
2524Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2525now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2526skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2527make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2528same code linked statically.
2529
2530 * New Getopt
2531
2532GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2533version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2534continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2535Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2536added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2537future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2538
2539 * Bugs fixed
2540
2541The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2542Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2543See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2544
2545
2546*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2547
2548 * New machines supported (host and target)
2549
2550Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2551NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2552Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2553
2554 * Almost SCO Unix support
2555
2556We had hoped to support:
2557SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2558(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2559that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2560about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2561
2562 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2563
2564GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2565debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2566is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2567send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2568reqired (if any).
2569
2570 * New Readline
2571
2572GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2573is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2574required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2575
2576 * Bugs fixed
2577
2578The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2579Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2580See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2581
2582 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2583
2584GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2585supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2586symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2587
2588Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2589mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2590debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2591mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2592version 2.
2593
2594Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2595really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2596line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2597variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2598situation somewhat.
2599
2600When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2601However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2602methods.
2603
2604We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2605DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2606encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2607
2608
2609*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2610
2611 * Improved configuration
2612
2613Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2614Porting BFD is simpler.
2615
2616 * Stepping improved
2617
2618The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2619of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2620in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2621function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2622
2623 * Bug fixing
2624
2625Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2626
2627 * New host supported (not target)
2628
2629Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2630
2631
2632*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2633
2634 * Multiple source language support
2635
2636GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2637It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2638and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2639language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2640You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2641`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2642
2643 * GDB and Modula-2
2644
2645GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2646currently under development at the State University of New York at
2647Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2648continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2649
2650Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2651debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2652symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2653
2654There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2655in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2656
2657 * set write on/off
2658
2659GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2660a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2661the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2662by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2663effect immediately.
2664
2665 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2666
2667When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2668shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2669The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2670examining core files.
2671
2672 * set listsize
2673
2674You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2675The default is 10.
2676
2677 * New machines supported (host and target)
2678
2679SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2680Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2681Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2682
2683 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2684
2685IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2686
2687 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2688
2689AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2690AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2691Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2692
2693 * New remote interfaces
2694
2695AMD 29000 Adapt
2696AMD 29000 Minimon
2697
2698
2699*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2700
2701 * New Facilities
2702
2703Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2704
2705Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2706target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2707is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2708remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2709remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2710also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2711using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2712stub on the target system.
2713
2714New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2715
2716GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2717library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2718object file types such as a.out and coff.
2719
2720There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2721refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2722
2723
2724 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2725
2726All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2727by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2728
2729For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2730``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2731Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2732
2733What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2734print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2735will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2736all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2737
2738confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2739 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2740 it is already running. Default is ON.
2741
2742editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2743 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2744 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2745 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2746 Default is ON.
2747
2748history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2749 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2750 or the value of the environment variable
2751 GDBHISTFILE.
2752
2753history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2754 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2755 HISTSIZE.
2756
2757history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2758 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2759 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2760
2761history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2762 history expansion will be performed on
2763 command line input. The default is OFF.
2764
2765radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2766 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2767 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2768
2769height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2770 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2771 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2772 variable TERM.
2773
2774width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2775 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2776 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2777 variable TERM.
2778
2779Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2780``set width'' instead.
2781
2782print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2783 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2784 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2785 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2786
2787print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2788 is OFF.
2789
2790print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2791 "raw" form if off.
2792
2793print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2794 like instructions.
2795
2796print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2797
2798
2799 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2800
2801The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2802new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2803are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2804window.
2805
2806
2807 * Support for Shared Libraries
2808
2809GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2810Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2811before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2812happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2813At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2814from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2815shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2816It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2817
2818sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2819 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2820 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2821
2822info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2823
2824
2825 * Watchpoints
2826
2827A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2828expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2829tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2830quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2831problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2832more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2833
2834watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2835
2836info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2837
2838delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2839disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2840enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2841
2842
2843 * C++ multiple inheritance
2844
2845When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2846for C++ programs.
2847
2848 * C++ exception handling
2849
2850Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2851ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2852the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2853handler's context).
2854
2855catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2856 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2857 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2858
2859info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2860 current stack frame.
2861
2862
2863 * Minor command changes
2864
2865The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2866command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2867is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2868
2869The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2870at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2871frames without printing.
2872
2873 * New directory command
2874
2875'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2876The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2877about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2878with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2879find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2880
2881 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2882
2883For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2884for more details.
2885
2886GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2887two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2888Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2889where the program that you are debugging will run.