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* elf32-mips.c (MIPS_ELF_SRDATA_SECTION_NAME): New macro.
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c906108c
SS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
7a292a7a
SS
4*** Changes since GDB-4.18:
5
6* New targets
7
8TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
9
10
c906108c
SS
11*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
12
13* New native configurations
14
15HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
16HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
17M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
18
19* New targets
20
21Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
22Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
23Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
24
25* OBSOLETE configurations
26
27Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
28
29Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
30but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
31these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
32be permanently REMOVED.
33
34* ANSI/ISO C
35
36As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
37buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
38containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
39use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
40available. If this is not true, please report the affected
41configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
42information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
43already.
44
45* Readline 2.2
46
47GDB now uses readline 2.2.
48
49* set extension-language
50
51You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
52languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
53you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
54 set extension-language .c c++
55The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
56and their associated languages.
57
58* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
59
60When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
61you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
62PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
63
64 set processor NAME
65
66sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
67following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
68
69 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
70 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
71 403 IBM PowerPC 403
72 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
73 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
74 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
75 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
76 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
77 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
78 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
79 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
80
81At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
82special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
83registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
84only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
85
86* HP-UX support
87
88Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
89more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
90library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
91support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
92for xdb and dbx commands.
93
94* Catchpoints
95
96HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
97generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
98to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
99
100This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
101argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
102output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
103
104* Debugging across forks
105
106On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
107in the inferior.
108
109* TUI
110
111HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
112it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
113configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
114
115* GDB remote protocol additions
116
117A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
118Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
119fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
120allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
121
122For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
123full 64-bit address. The command
124
125 set remoteaddresssize 32
126
127can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
128the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
129will be discarded.
130
131In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
132command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
133
134 maint packet heythere
135
136sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
137disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
138time.
139
140The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
141target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
142downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
143
144* Tracing can collect general expressions
145
146You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
147further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
148doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
149
150* mask-address variable for Mips
151
152For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
153a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
154of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
155
156* Higher serial baud rates
157
158GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
159230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
160to achieve all of these rates.)
161
162* i960 simulator
163
164The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
165builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
166
167
168*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
169
170* New native configurations
171
172Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
173Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
174Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
175PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
176PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
177Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
178Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
179
180* New targets
181
182Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
183Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
184Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
185Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
186MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
187MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
188MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
189Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
190Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
191Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
192NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
193
194* New debugging protocols
195
196ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
197M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
198DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
199PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
200PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
201Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
202
203* DWARF 2
204
205All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
206format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
207information.
208
209* Java frontend
210
211GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
212only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
213
214* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
215
216For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
217loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
218locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
219
220* Live range splitting
221
222GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
223range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
224more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
225
226* Hurd support
227
228GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
229updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
230
231* ARM Thumb support
232
233GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
234instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
235instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
236accordingly.
237
238* MIPS16 support
239
240GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
241instruction set.
242
243* Overlay support
244
245GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
246linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
247will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
248control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
249additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
250in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
251
252* info symbol
253
254The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
255the symbol at the specified address.
256
257* Trace support
258
259The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
260asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
261extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
262includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
263file tracepoint.c for more details.
264
265* MIPS simulator
266
267Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
268by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
269of most MIPS variants.
270
271* Sparc simulator
272
273Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
274by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
275Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
276
277* set architecture
278
279For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
280basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
281architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
282the possible architectures.
283
284*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
285
286* New native configurations
287
288Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
289M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
290PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
291PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
292PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
293RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
294
295* New targets
296
297ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
298I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
299MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
300MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
301PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
302Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
303Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
304
305* PowerPC simulator
306
307The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
308contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
309PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
310basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
311performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
312
313* Solaris 2.5
314
315GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
316
317* Windows 95/NT native
318
319GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
320To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
321which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
322Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
323ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
324
325* dont-repeat command
326
327If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
328command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
329useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
330extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
331
332* Send break instead of ^C
333
334The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
335rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
336GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
337
338* Remote protocol timeout
339
340The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
341that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
342to read from the target. The default value is 2.
343
344* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
345
346By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
347loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
348stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
349when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
350in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
351
352Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
353/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
354automatically on hpux10.
355
356* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
357
358Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
359
360* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
361
362When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
363may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
364the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
365every character. The default value is 1050.
366
367* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
368
369If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
370a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
371replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
372details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
373remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
374to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
375
376* Speedups for remote debugging
377
378GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
379the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
380and more efficient S-record downloading.
381
382* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
383
384GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
385Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
386
387*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
388
389* Psymtabs for XCOFF
390
391The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
392can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
393
394* Remote targets use caching
395
396Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
397remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
398it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
399debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
400off' turns the the data cache off.
401
402* Remote targets may have threads
403
404The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
405in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
406gdb/remote.c for details.
407
408* NetROM support
409
410If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
411support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
412acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
413write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
414support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
415another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
416sequence is something like
417
418 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
419 load <prog>
420 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
421
422* Macintosh host
423
424GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
425may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
426it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
427available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
428device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
429directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
430scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
431mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
432
433* Autoconf
434
435GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
436but does simplify configuration and building.
437
438* hpux10
439
440GDB now supports hpux10.
441
442*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
443
444* New native configurations
445
446x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
447x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
448NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
449Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
450
451* New targets
452
453A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
454HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
455CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
456PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
457WDC 65816 w65-*-*
458
459* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
460
461GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
462possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
463filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
464the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
465if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
466
467* Arguments to user-defined commands
468
469User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
470Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
471trivial example:
472define adder
473 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
474
475To execute the command use:
476adder 1 2 3
477
478Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
479Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
480use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
481
482* New `if' and `while' commands
483
484This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
485commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
486expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
487execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
488terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
489`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
490if the expression is zero.
491
492* Fortran source language mode
493
494GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
495Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
496variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
497with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
498Fortran compilers.
499
500* Better HPUX support
501
502Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
503running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
504processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
505for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
506that behavior do the following before running the program:
507
508 adb -w a.out
509 __dld_flags?W 0x5
510 control-d
511
512This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
513To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
514
515 adb -w a.out
516 __dld_flags?W 0x4
517 control-d
518
519You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
520the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
521external linkage.
522
523GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
524HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
525
526* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
527
528You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
529commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
530current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
531"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
532associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
533configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
534
535* New DOS host serial code
536
537This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
538no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
539a PC's serial port.
540
541*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
542
543* New "complete" command
544
545This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
546were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
547
548* Trailing space optional in prompt
549
550"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
551allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
552
553* Breakpoint hit counts
554
555"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
556has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
557can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
558to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
559less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
560that breakpoint.
561
562* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
563
564"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
565an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
566arrays actually contain only short strings.
567
568* Shared library breakpoints
569
570In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
571breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
572
573* Hardware watchpoints
574
575There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
576targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
577
578Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
579
580* Annotations
581
582Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
583and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
584
585* Improved Irix 5 support
586
587GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
588
589* Improved HPPA support
590
591GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
592
593* New native configurations
594
595Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
596HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
597Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
598RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
599
600* New targets
601
602OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
603MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
604Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
605
606* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
607
608There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
609This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
610
611* Fixes
612
613As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
614and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
615
616*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
617
618* Irix 5 is now supported
619
620* HPPA support
621
622GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
623to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
624GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
625of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
626can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
627
628
629*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
630
631* User visible changes:
632
633* Remote Debugging
634
635The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
636target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
637debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
638integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
639debugging info for the mips target).
640
641* DEC Alpha native support
642
643GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
644debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
645work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
646Alpha-specific notes.
647
648* Preliminary thread implementation
649
650GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
651
652* LynxOS native and target support for 386
653
654This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
655to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
656for details).
657
658* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
659
660This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
661mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
662call methods, ...etc.
663
664*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
665
666 * User visible changes:
667
668Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
669supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
670other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
671somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
672
673Filename completion now works.
674
675When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
676arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
677addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
678
679All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
680vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
681should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
682your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
683to be on the far side of a thin network line.
684
685 * DEC alpha support
686
687This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
688cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
689
690
691*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
692
693 * Testsuite
694
695This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
696The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
697via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
698
699 * C++ demangling
700
701'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
702emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
703Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
704disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
705use gdb with AT&T cfront.
706
707 * Simulators
708
709GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
710So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
711Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
712
713 * New targets supported
714
715H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
716H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
717SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
718Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
719IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
720
721Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
722version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
723GO32 memory extender.
724
725 * New remote protocols
726
727MIPS remote debugging protocol.
728
729 * New source languages supported
730
731This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
732used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
733into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
734
735
736*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
737
738 * HP Precision Architecture supported
739
740GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
741version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
742University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
743compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
744format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
745(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
746
747Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
748
749 * Faster and better demangling
750
751We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
752demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
753character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
754only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
755This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
756increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
757symbol lookups.
758
759`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
760from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
761compiler does not actually implement.
762
763 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
764
765In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
766inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
767recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
768very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
769The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
770circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
771fix.
772
773The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
774release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
775
776 * Improved configure script
777
778The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
779you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
780host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
781done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
782
783We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
784version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
785`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
786The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
787only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
788We hope to make this the default in a future release.
789
790 * Documentation improvements
791
792There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
793produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
794before submitting changes.
795
796The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
797M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
798`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
799you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
800a future texinfo-X.Y release.
801
802*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
803We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
804been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
805or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
806`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
807around this problem.
808
809 * New features
810
811GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
812the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
813`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
814the target program.
815
816The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
817how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
818
819 * New native hosts supported
820
821HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
822386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
823
824 * New targets supported
825
826AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
827
828 * New file formats supported
829
830BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
831HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
832
833 * Major bug fixes
834
835Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
836
837We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
838printf_filtered("%s") problems.
839
840We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
841for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
842release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
843
844You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
845will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
846
847We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
848for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
849especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
850libraries.
851
852The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
853information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
854command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
855any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
856when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
857
858 * Internal improvements
859
860GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
861debugging of multiple languages in the future.
862
863GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
864Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
865symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
866contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
867shared code that handles any of them.
868
869 * New command line options
870
871We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
872
873 * Mmalloc licensing
874
875The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
876General Public License.
877
878*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
879
880 * Host/native/target split
881
882GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
883hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
884target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
885local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
886ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
887
888The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
889GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
890is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
891code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
892any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
893built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
894handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
895
896GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
897It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
898plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
899
900 * New hosts supported
901
902HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
903386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
904386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
905
906 * New targets supported
907
908Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
90968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
910
911 * New native hosts supported
912
913386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
914 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
915386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
916
917 * New file formats supported
918
919BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
920supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
921format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
922
923 * New commands
924
925`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
926`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
927These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
928
929`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
930
931You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
932scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
933prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
934executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
935
936 * C++ improvements
937
938We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
939info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
940symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
941
942Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
943
944 * Major bug fixes
945
946The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
947fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
948by the compiler.
949
950We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
951support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
952
953John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
954slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
955that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
956purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
957the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
958mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
959
960Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
961about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
962completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
963we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
964
965 * AMD 29k support
966
967A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
968specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
969calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
970usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
971in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
972
973We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
974Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
975of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
976resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
977
978 * Remote interfaces
979
980We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
981with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
982message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
983This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
984needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
985breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
986each instruction being stepped through.
987
988The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
989registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
990
991There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
992find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
993Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
994processor with a serial port.
995
996 * Configuration
997
998Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
999`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1000supported, and what files each one uses.
1001
1002 * Library changes
1003
1004There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1005disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1006Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1007disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1008
1009The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1010Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1011can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1012grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1013
1014 * Documentation
1015
1016The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1017reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1018as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1019encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1020system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1021bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1022
1023And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1024
1025
1026*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1027
1028 * Better support for C++ function names
1029
1030GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1031names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1032(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1033single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1034Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1035
1036GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1037the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1038You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1039lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1040for the list of formats.
1041
1042 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1043
1044Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1045C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1046directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1047can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1048usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1049about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1050this problem.)
1051
1052 * New 'maintenance' command
1053
1054All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1055the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1056can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1057
1058 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1059 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1060 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1061 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1062 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1063 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1064
1065The following commands are new:
1066
1067 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1068 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1069 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1070
1071 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1072
1073We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1074(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1075be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1076read after argv processing.
1077
1078 * New hosts supported
1079
1080Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1081
1082Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1083
1084We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1085is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1086for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1087masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1088fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1089It costs extra.
1090
1091 * New targets supported
1092
1093Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1094
1095 * More smarts about finding #include files
1096
1097GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1098all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1099greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1100especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1101the one that contains your sources.
1102
1103We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1104breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1105try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1106
1107 * Interesting infernals change
1108
1109GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1110section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1111target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1112stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1113
1114 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1115
1116There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1117 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1118 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1119
1120See the ChangeLog for details.
1121
1122*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1123
1124 * New machines supported (host and target)
1125
1126IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1127
1128SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1129
1130 * New malloc package
1131
1132GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1133Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1134capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1135This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1136pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1137more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1138
1139 * info proc
1140
1141The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1142'help info proc' for details.
1143
1144 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1145
1146The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1147Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1148possible.
1149
1150 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1151
1152Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1153support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1154conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1155environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1156that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1157in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1158
1159 * Cross byte order fixes
1160
1161Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1162targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1163
1164 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1165
1166If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1167system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1168`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1169program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1170called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1171Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1172and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1173the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1174option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1175starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1176
1177You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1178the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1179information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1180slower, but makes future operations faster.
1181
1182The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1183build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1184A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1185use is:
1186
1187 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1188
1189The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1190It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1191shared across multiple host platforms.
1192
1193 * longjmp() handling
1194
1195GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1196siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1197all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1198platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1199
1200 * Solaris 2.0
1201
1202Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1203this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1204reading symbols.
1205
1206 * Bug fixes
1207
1208As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1209People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1210crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1211
1212*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1213
1214 * New machines supported (host and target)
1215
1216SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1217 (except core files)
1218BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1219Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1220
1221 * New machines supported (target)
1222
1223AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1224
1225 * C++ support
1226
1227GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1228The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1229per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1230
1231GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1232`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1233extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1234good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1235will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1236released.
1237
1238 * New features for SVR4
1239
1240GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1241shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1242only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1243
1244The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1245on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1246it prints the address mappings of the process.
1247
1248If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1249bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1250
1251 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1252
1253Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1254now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1255skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1256make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1257same code linked statically.
1258
1259 * New Getopt
1260
1261GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1262version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1263continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1264Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1265added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1266future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1267
1268 * Bugs fixed
1269
1270The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1271Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1272See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1273
1274
1275*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1276
1277 * New machines supported (host and target)
1278
1279Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1280NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1281Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1282
1283 * Almost SCO Unix support
1284
1285We had hoped to support:
1286SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1287(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1288that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1289about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1290
1291 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1292
1293GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1294debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1295is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1296send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1297reqired (if any).
1298
1299 * New Readline
1300
1301GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1302is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1303required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1304
1305 * Bugs fixed
1306
1307The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1308Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1309See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1310
1311 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1312
1313GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1314supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1315symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1316
1317Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1318mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1319debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1320mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1321version 2.
1322
1323Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1324really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1325line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1326variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1327situation somewhat.
1328
1329When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1330However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1331methods.
1332
1333We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1334DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1335encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1336
1337
1338*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1339
1340 * Improved configuration
1341
1342Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1343Porting BFD is simpler.
1344
1345 * Stepping improved
1346
1347The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1348of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1349in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1350function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1351
1352 * Bug fixing
1353
1354Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1355
1356 * New host supported (not target)
1357
1358Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1359
1360
1361*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1362
1363 * Multiple source language support
1364
1365GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1366It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1367and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1368language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1369You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1370`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1371
1372 * GDB and Modula-2
1373
1374GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1375currently under development at the State University of New York at
1376Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1377continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1378
1379Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1380debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1381symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1382
1383There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1384in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1385
1386 * set write on/off
1387
1388GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1389a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1390the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1391by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1392effect immediately.
1393
1394 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1395
1396When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1397shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1398The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1399examining core files.
1400
1401 * set listsize
1402
1403You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1404The default is 10.
1405
1406 * New machines supported (host and target)
1407
1408SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1409Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1410Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1411
1412 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1413
1414IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1415
1416 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1417
1418AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1419AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1420Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1421
1422 * New remote interfaces
1423
1424AMD 29000 Adapt
1425AMD 29000 Minimon
1426
1427
1428*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1429
1430 * New Facilities
1431
1432Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1433
1434Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1435target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1436is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1437remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1438remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1439also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1440using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1441stub on the target system.
1442
1443New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1444
1445GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1446library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1447object file types such as a.out and coff.
1448
1449There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1450refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1451
1452
1453 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1454
1455All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1456by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1457
1458For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1459``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1460Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1461
1462What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1463print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1464will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1465all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1466
1467confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1468 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1469 it is already running. Default is ON.
1470
1471editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1472 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1473 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1474 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1475 Default is ON.
1476
1477history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1478 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1479 or the value of the environment variable
1480 GDBHISTFILE.
1481
1482history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1483 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1484 HISTSIZE.
1485
1486history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1487 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1488 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1489
1490history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1491 history expansion will be performed on
1492 command line input. The default is OFF.
1493
1494radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1495 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1496 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1497
1498height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1499 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1500 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1501 variable TERM.
1502
1503width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1504 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1505 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1506 variable TERM.
1507
1508Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1509``set width'' instead.
1510
1511print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1512 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1513 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1514 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1515
1516print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1517 is OFF.
1518
1519print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1520 "raw" form if off.
1521
1522print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1523 like instructions.
1524
1525print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1526
1527
1528 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1529
1530The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1531new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1532are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1533window.
1534
1535
1536 * Support for Shared Libraries
1537
1538GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1539Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1540before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1541happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1542At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1543from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1544shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1545It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1546
1547sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1548 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1549 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1550
1551info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1552
1553
1554 * Watchpoints
1555
1556A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1557expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1558tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1559quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1560problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1561more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1562
1563watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1564
1565info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1566
1567delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1568disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1569enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1570
1571
1572 * C++ multiple inheritance
1573
1574When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1575for C++ programs.
1576
1577 * C++ exception handling
1578
1579Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1580ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1581the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1582handler's context).
1583
1584catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1585 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1586 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1587
1588info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1589 current stack frame.
1590
1591
1592 * Minor command changes
1593
1594The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1595command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1596is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1597
1598The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1599at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1600frames without printing.
1601
1602 * New directory command
1603
1604'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1605The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1606about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1607with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1608find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1609
1610 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1611
1612For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1613for more details.
1614
1615GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1616two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1617Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1618where the program that you are debugging will run.