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c906108c
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.1:
5
3c0b7db2
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6* Signal trampoline code overhauled
7
8Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
9These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
10of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
11call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
12signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
13
14These fixes were tested on i386 GNU/Linux systems that include a 2.4
15kernel.
16
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17* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
18
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19* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
20
21Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
22wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
23
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24* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
25
26The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
27permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
28systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
29
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30* New native configurations
31
8f2d3ea0 32OpenBSD/m68k m68k-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 33OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 34NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 35OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 36
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37* REMOVED configurations and files
38
39Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
40Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
41Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
42Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
43Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
44AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
45Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
46decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
47riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
48sonymips mips-sony-*
49sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
50
faae5abe 51*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 52
9175c9a3
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53* Removed --with-mmalloc
54
55Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
56conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
57
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58* Changes in AMD64 configurations
59
60The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
61the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
62and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
63you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
64
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65* Revised SPARC target
66
67The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
68FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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69support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
70from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
71(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 72
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73* New C++ demangler
74
75GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
76names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
77with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
78programs.
79
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80* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
81
82GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
83arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
84encountered these.
85
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86* C++ nested types and namespaces
87
88GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
89improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
90is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
91Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
92namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
93"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
94frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
95if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
96GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
97
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98* New native configurations
99
100NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 101OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 102OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
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103OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
104OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 105
b4b4b794
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106* New debugging protocols
107
108M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
109
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110* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
111
112The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
113and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
114tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
115
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116* OBSOLETE configurations and files
117
118Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
119been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
120configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
121permanently REMOVED.
122
123Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
124Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
125Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
126Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
127Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
128AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
129Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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130decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
131riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
132sonymips mips-sony-*
133sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 134
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135* REMOVED configurations and files
136
137SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
138SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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139Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
140Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
141H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
142HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
143HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
144HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
145PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 146386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
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147Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
148 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
149 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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150SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
151SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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152Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
153Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 154
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155*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
156
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157* Objective-C
158
159Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
160integrated into GDB.
161
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162* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
163
164DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
165information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
166By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
167backtraces.
168
169The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
170have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
171DWARF 2 CFI support.
172
173* Hosted file I/O.
174
175GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
176file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
177remote protocol documentation for details.
178
179* All targets using the new architecture framework.
180
181All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
182architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
183to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
184ppc32 on ppc64).
185
186* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
187
188GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
189per-thread variables.
190
191* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
192
193GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
194GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
195
196* Separate debug info.
197
198GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
199automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
200of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
201system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
202and optional debug files.
203
204* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
205
206DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
207describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
208debugger.
209
210GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
211for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
212
213* Java
214
215A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
216Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
217considered "useable".
218
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219* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
220
221The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
222commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
223kernel.
224
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225* GDB supports logging output to a file
226
227There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
228used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 229
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230* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
231
232The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
233disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
234command.
235
e286caf2 236* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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237
238The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
239registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
240
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241* Profiling support
242
243A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
244be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
245session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
246"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
247data, for more informative profiling results.
248
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249* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
250
251The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
252option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 253"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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254
255Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
256removed.
257
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258Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
259Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
260Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
261 in a subsequent -var-update.
262
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263* New native configurations.
264
265FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
266
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267* Multi-arched targets.
268
b4263afa 269HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 270Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 271
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272* OBSOLETE configurations and files
273
274Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
275been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
276configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
277permanently REMOVED.
278
8b0e5691 279Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 280Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 281H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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282HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
283HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
284HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 285PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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286Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
287 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
288 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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289Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
290Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 291
5835abe7
NC
292* REMOVED configurations and files
293
294V850EA ISA
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295Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
296IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
297i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
298i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
299i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
300HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
301 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
302 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
303Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
304Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
305Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
306OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
307I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 308
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309* MIPS $fp behavior changed
310
311The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
312the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
313context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
314address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
315The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
316
299ffc64 317*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 318
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319* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
320
321When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
322`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
323in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
324library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
325shared libs like mad''.
326
b9d14705 327* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 328
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329Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
330the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
331arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
332powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 333
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334* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
335
336GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
337and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
338they expand.
339
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340The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
341invocations in expression, and shows the result.
342
343The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
344macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
345
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346Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
347information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
348your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
349information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
350
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351* Multi-arched targets.
352
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353DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
354DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 355NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 356National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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357Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
358Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 359
cd9bfe15 360* New targets.
e33ce519 361
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362Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
363
e33ce519 364
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365* New native configurations
366
367Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 368SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 369MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 370UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 371
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372* OBSOLETE configurations and files
373
374Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
375been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
376configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
377permanently REMOVED.
378
92eb23c5 379Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 380OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 381IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 382Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 383Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 384Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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385i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
386i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
387i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
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388HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
389 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
390 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 391I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 392
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AC
393* OBSOLETE languages
394
395CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
396
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397* REMOVED configurations and files
398
399AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
400A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
401AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
402AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
403AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
404
405testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
406
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DH
407* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
408
409This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
410commands. The default is 1024.
411
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412* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
413
414Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
415
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MS
416* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
417
418These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
419to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
420from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 421
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JB
422* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
423
424The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
425including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
426of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
427
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AC
428*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
429
430* New targets.
431
432Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
433
434* Bug fixes
435
436gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
437mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
438Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
439
440gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
441dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
442Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
443
444Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
445Surprisingly enough, it works now.
446By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
447
448i386 hardware watchpoint support:
449avoid misses on second run for some targets.
450By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
451
37057839 452*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 453
1a703748
MS
454* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
455
456This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
457really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
458In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
459target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
460This can be a significant performance improvement on some
461(notably embedded) targets.
462
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463* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
464
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465This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
466process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
467GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
468hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 469
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470* New command line option
471
472GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
473
474* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
475
476There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
477command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
478a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
479be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
480open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
481issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
482a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
483it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
484GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
485is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
486
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487* Changes in ARM configurations.
488
489Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
490configuration is fully multi-arch.
491
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492* New native configurations
493
fe419ffc 494ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 495x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 496AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 497Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 498
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499* New targets
500
501Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
502
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503* OBSOLETE configurations and files
504
505Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
506been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
507configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
508permanently REMOVED.
509
510AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
511A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
512AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
513AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
514AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
515
b4ceaee6 516testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 517
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518* REMOVED configurations and files
519
520TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 521WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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522PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
523PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
524PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 525Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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AC
526Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
527 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 528SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 529Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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530Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
531ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 532Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 533
c2a727fa
TT
534* Changes to command line processing
535
536The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
537for the inferior from gdb's command line.
538
467d8519
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539* Changes to key bindings
540
541There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
542
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543*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
544
545Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
546
547Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
548corrupted.
549
550Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
551
552Numerous documentation fixes.
553
554Numerous testsuite fixes.
555
34f47bc4 556*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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557
558* New native configurations
559
560Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
561x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 562MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
563MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
564ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 565s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 566
bf64bfd6
AC
567* New targets
568
def90278 569Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 570CRIS cris-axis
55241689 571UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 572
17e78a56 573* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
574
575x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 576Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
577Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
578 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
579TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
580WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 581Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
582PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
583PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
584PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 585SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
586Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
587ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 588Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 589
17e78a56
AC
590stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
591kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
592
7fcca85b
AC
593Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
594been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
595configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
596permanently REMOVED.
597
a196c81c 598* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
599
600Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
601Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
602Pyramid pyramid-*-*
603ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
604Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 605ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 606
6d6b80e5 607* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 608
6d6b80e5 609GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
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610sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
611present.
612
bf64bfd6
AC
613* Other news:
614
e23194cb
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615* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
616
617* The MI enabled by default.
618
619The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
620revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
621engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
622using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
623which is now deprecated.
624
625* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
626
627GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
628main features are supported:
629
630 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
631
632 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
633 extension;
634
635 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
636
637 - a Pascal expression parser.
638
639However, some important features are not yet supported.
640
641 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
642
643 - there are some problems with boolean types;
644
645 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
646 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
647
648 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
649
650 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
651
652* Changes in completion.
653
654Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
655to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
656users expect at the shell prompt.
657
658Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
659`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
660program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
661files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
662be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
663considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
664name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
665
666`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
667
668* New platform-independent commands:
669
670It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
671hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
672documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
673
674* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
675
d7275149
MK
676Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
677revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
678many threads as your system allows you to have.
679
e23194cb
EZ
680Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
681
d7275149
MK
682Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
683multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
684
685* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
686
687Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
688
e23194cb
EZ
689GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
690debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
691supported.)
692
693* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
694
695Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
696breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
697implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
698put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
699and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
700registers.
701
702The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
703debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
704watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
705
706* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
707
708New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
709the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
710
711New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
712display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
713IDT.
714
715New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
716from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
717New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
718a given linear address.
719
720GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
721program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
722which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
723
724DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
725
6c56c069
EZ
726It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
727
e23194cb
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728* Changes in documentation.
729
730All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
731Documentation License.
732
733Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
734manual.
735
736TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
737
738Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
739manual.
740
741The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
742documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
743hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
744
5d6640b1
AC
745* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
746
747The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
748``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
749contents of this file.
750
1a1d8446
AC
751* gdba.el deleted
752
753GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 754
9debab2f 755*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 756
c63ce875
EZ
757* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
758
759Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
760programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
761displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
762greater level of detail.
763
764* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
765
766It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
767bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
768on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
769written.
770
771* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
772
773The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
774necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
775machines ``out of the box''.
776
777The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
778possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
779signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
780would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
781interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
782
783It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
784standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
785even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
786and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
787terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
788
789The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
790enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
791also works.
792
793DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
794GDB.
795
796It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
797directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
798times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
799breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
800
ed9a39eb
JM
801* New native configurations
802
803ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 804PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 805
7a292a7a
SS
806* New targets
807
96baa820 808Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
809x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
810PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
811TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
812
085dd6e6
JM
813* OBSOLETE configurations
814
815Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
816Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 817Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 818ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 819Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 820
9debab2f
AC
821Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
822but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
823these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
824be permanently REMOVED.
825
5330533d
SS
826* Gould support removed
827
828Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
829
bc9e5bbf
AC
830* New features for SVR4
831
832On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
833without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
834load symbols from the running process's executable file.
835
836* Many C++ enhancements
837
838C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
839in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
840
adf40b2e
JM
841* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
842
843A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
844sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
845with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
846``|<program> <args>'' vis:
847
848 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
849 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
850
43e526b9
JM
851* MIPS 64 remote protocol
852
853A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
854expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
855instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
856
857The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
858added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
859
96baa820
JM
860* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
861
862The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
863``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
864include ``set remote P-packet''.
865
11cf8741
JM
866* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
867
868The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
869accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
870``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
871
7876dd43
DB
872* ``apropos'' command added.
873
874The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
875documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
876try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
877
bc9e5bbf
AC
878* New MI interface
879
880A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
881interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
882process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
883"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
884enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
885
886 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
887
c906108c
SS
888*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
889
890* New native configurations
891
892HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
893HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 894M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
895
896* New targets
897
898Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
899Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
900Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
901
902* OBSOLETE configurations
903
904Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
905
906Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
907but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
908these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
909be permanently REMOVED.
910
911* ANSI/ISO C
912
913As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
914buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
915containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
916use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
917available. If this is not true, please report the affected
918configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
919information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
920already.
921
922* Readline 2.2
923
924GDB now uses readline 2.2.
925
926* set extension-language
927
928You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
929languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
930you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
931 set extension-language .c c++
932The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
933and their associated languages.
934
935* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
936
937When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
938you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
939PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
940
941 set processor NAME
942
943sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
944following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
945
946 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
947 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
948 403 IBM PowerPC 403
949 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
950 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
951 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
952 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
953 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
954 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
955 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
956 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
957
958At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
959special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
960registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
961only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
962
963* HP-UX support
964
965Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
966more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
967library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
968support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
969for xdb and dbx commands.
970
971* Catchpoints
972
973HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
974generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
975to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
976
977This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
978argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
979output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
980
981* Debugging across forks
982
983On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
984in the inferior.
985
986* TUI
987
988HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
989it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
990configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
991
992* GDB remote protocol additions
993
994A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
995Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
996fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
997allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
998
999For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1000full 64-bit address. The command
1001
1002 set remoteaddresssize 32
1003
1004can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1005the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1006will be discarded.
1007
1008In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1009command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1010
1011 maint packet heythere
1012
1013sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1014disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1015time.
1016
1017The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1018target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1019downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1020
1021* Tracing can collect general expressions
1022
1023You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1024further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1025doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1026
1027* mask-address variable for Mips
1028
1029For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1030a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1031of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1032
1033* Higher serial baud rates
1034
1035GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1036230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1037to achieve all of these rates.)
1038
1039* i960 simulator
1040
1041The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1042builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1043
1044
1045*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1046
1047* New native configurations
1048
1049Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1050Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1051Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1052PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1053PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1054Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1055Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1056
1057* New targets
1058
1059Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1060Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1061Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1062Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1063MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1064MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1065MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1066Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1067Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1068Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1069NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1070
1071* New debugging protocols
1072
1073ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1074M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1075DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1076PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1077PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1078Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1079
1080* DWARF 2
1081
1082All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1083format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1084information.
1085
1086* Java frontend
1087
1088GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1089only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1090
1091* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1092
1093For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1094loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1095locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1096
1097* Live range splitting
1098
1099GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1100range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1101more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1102
1103* Hurd support
1104
1105GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1106updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1107
1108* ARM Thumb support
1109
1110GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1111instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1112instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1113accordingly.
1114
1115* MIPS16 support
1116
1117GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1118instruction set.
1119
1120* Overlay support
1121
1122GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1123linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1124will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1125control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1126additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1127in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1128
1129* info symbol
1130
1131The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1132the symbol at the specified address.
1133
1134* Trace support
1135
1136The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1137asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1138extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1139includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1140file tracepoint.c for more details.
1141
1142* MIPS simulator
1143
1144Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1145by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1146of most MIPS variants.
1147
1148* Sparc simulator
1149
1150Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1151by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1152Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1153
1154* set architecture
1155
1156For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1157basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1158architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1159the possible architectures.
1160
1161*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1162
1163* New native configurations
1164
1165Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1166M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1167PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1168PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1169PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1170RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1171
1172* New targets
1173
1174ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1175I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1176MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1177MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1178PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1179Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1180Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1181
1182* PowerPC simulator
1183
1184The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1185contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1186PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1187basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1188performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1189
1190* Solaris 2.5
1191
1192GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1193
1194* Windows 95/NT native
1195
1196GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1197To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1198which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1199Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1200ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1201
1202* dont-repeat command
1203
1204If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1205command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1206useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1207extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1208
1209* Send break instead of ^C
1210
1211The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1212rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1213GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1214
1215* Remote protocol timeout
1216
1217The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1218that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1219to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1220
1221* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1222
1223By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1224loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1225stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1226when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1227in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1228
1229Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1230/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1231automatically on hpux10.
1232
1233* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1234
1235Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1236
1237* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1238
1239When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1240may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1241the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1242every character. The default value is 1050.
1243
1244* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1245
1246If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1247a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1248replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1249details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1250remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1251to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1252
1253* Speedups for remote debugging
1254
1255GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1256the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1257and more efficient S-record downloading.
1258
1259* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1260
1261GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1262Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1263
1264*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1265
1266* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1267
1268The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1269can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1270
1271* Remote targets use caching
1272
1273Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1274remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1275it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1276debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1277off' turns the the data cache off.
1278
1279* Remote targets may have threads
1280
1281The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1282in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1283gdb/remote.c for details.
1284
1285* NetROM support
1286
1287If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1288support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1289acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1290write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1291support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1292another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1293sequence is something like
1294
1295 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1296 load <prog>
1297 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1298
1299* Macintosh host
1300
1301GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1302may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1303it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1304available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1305device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1306directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1307scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1308mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1309
1310* Autoconf
1311
1312GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1313but does simplify configuration and building.
1314
1315* hpux10
1316
1317GDB now supports hpux10.
1318
1319*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1320
1321* New native configurations
1322
1323x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1324x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1325NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1326Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1327
1328* New targets
1329
1330A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1331HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1332CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1333PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1334WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1335
1336* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1337
1338GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1339possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1340filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1341the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1342if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1343
1344* Arguments to user-defined commands
1345
1346User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1347Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1348trivial example:
1349define adder
1350 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1351
1352To execute the command use:
1353adder 1 2 3
1354
1355Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1356Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1357use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1358
1359* New `if' and `while' commands
1360
1361This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1362commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1363expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1364execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1365terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1366`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1367if the expression is zero.
1368
1369* Fortran source language mode
1370
1371GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1372Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1373variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1374with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1375Fortran compilers.
1376
1377* Better HPUX support
1378
1379Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1380running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1381processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1382for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1383that behavior do the following before running the program:
1384
1385 adb -w a.out
1386 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1387 control-d
1388
1389This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1390To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1391
1392 adb -w a.out
1393 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1394 control-d
1395
1396You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1397the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1398external linkage.
1399
1400GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1401HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1402
1403* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1404
1405You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1406commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1407current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1408"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1409associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1410configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1411
1412* New DOS host serial code
1413
1414This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1415no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1416a PC's serial port.
1417
1418*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1419
1420* New "complete" command
1421
1422This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1423were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1424
1425* Trailing space optional in prompt
1426
1427"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1428allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1429
1430* Breakpoint hit counts
1431
1432"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1433has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1434can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1435to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1436less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1437that breakpoint.
1438
1439* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1440
1441"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1442an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1443arrays actually contain only short strings.
1444
1445* Shared library breakpoints
1446
1447In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1448breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1449
1450* Hardware watchpoints
1451
1452There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1453targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1454
55241689 1455Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1456
1457* Annotations
1458
1459Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1460and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1461
1462* Improved Irix 5 support
1463
1464GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1465
1466* Improved HPPA support
1467
1468GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1469
1470* New native configurations
1471
1472Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1473HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1474Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1475RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1476
1477* New targets
1478
1479OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1480MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1481Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1482
1483* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1484
1485There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1486This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1487
1488* Fixes
1489
1490As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1491and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1492
1493*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1494
1495* Irix 5 is now supported
1496
1497* HPPA support
1498
1499GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1500to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1501GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1502of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1503can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1504
1505
1506*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1507
1508* User visible changes:
1509
1510* Remote Debugging
1511
1512The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1513target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1514debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1515integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1516debugging info for the mips target).
1517
1518* DEC Alpha native support
1519
1520GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1521debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1522work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1523Alpha-specific notes.
1524
1525* Preliminary thread implementation
1526
1527GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1528
1529* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1530
1531This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1532to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1533for details).
1534
1535* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1536
1537This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1538mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1539call methods, ...etc.
1540
1541*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1542
1543 * User visible changes:
1544
1545Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1546supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1547other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1548somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1549
1550Filename completion now works.
1551
1552When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1553arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1554addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1555
1556All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1557vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1558should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1559your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1560to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1561
1562 * DEC alpha support
1563
1564This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1565cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1566
1567
1568*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1569
1570 * Testsuite
1571
1572This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1573The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1574via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1575
1576 * C++ demangling
1577
1578'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1579emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1580Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1581disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1582use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1583
1584 * Simulators
1585
1586GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1587So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1588Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1589
1590 * New targets supported
1591
1592H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1593H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1594SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1595Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1596IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1597
1598Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1599version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1600GO32 memory extender.
1601
1602 * New remote protocols
1603
1604MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1605
1606 * New source languages supported
1607
1608This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1609used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1610into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1611
1612
1613*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1614
1615 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1616
1617GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1618version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1619University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1620compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1621format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1622(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1623
1624Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1625
1626 * Faster and better demangling
1627
1628We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1629demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1630character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1631only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1632This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1633increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1634symbol lookups.
1635
1636`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1637from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1638compiler does not actually implement.
1639
1640 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1641
1642In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1643inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1644recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1645very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1646The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1647circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1648fix.
1649
1650The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1651release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1652
1653 * Improved configure script
1654
1655The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1656you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1657host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1658done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1659
1660We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1661version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1662`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1663The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1664only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1665We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1666
1667 * Documentation improvements
1668
1669There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1670produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1671before submitting changes.
1672
1673The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1674M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1675`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1676you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1677a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1678
1679*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1680We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1681been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1682or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1683`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1684around this problem.
1685
1686 * New features
1687
1688GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1689the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1690`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1691the target program.
1692
1693The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1694how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1695
1696 * New native hosts supported
1697
1698HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1699386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1700
1701 * New targets supported
1702
1703AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1704
1705 * New file formats supported
1706
1707BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1708HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1709
1710 * Major bug fixes
1711
1712Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1713
1714We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1715printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1716
1717We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1718for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1719release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1720
1721You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1722will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1723
1724We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1725for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1726especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1727libraries.
1728
1729The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1730information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1731command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1732any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1733when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1734
1735 * Internal improvements
1736
1737GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1738debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1739
1740GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1741Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1742symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1743contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1744shared code that handles any of them.
1745
1746 * New command line options
1747
1748We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1749
1750 * Mmalloc licensing
1751
1752The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1753General Public License.
1754
1755*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1756
1757 * Host/native/target split
1758
1759GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1760hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1761target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1762local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1763ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1764
1765The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1766GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1767is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1768code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1769any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1770built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1771handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1772
1773GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1774It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1775plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1776
1777 * New hosts supported
1778
1779HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1780386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1781386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1782
1783 * New targets supported
1784
1785Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
178668030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1787
1788 * New native hosts supported
1789
1790386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1791 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1792386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1793
1794 * New file formats supported
1795
1796BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1797supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1798format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1799
1800 * New commands
1801
1802`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1803`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1804These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1805
1806`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1807
1808You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1809scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1810prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1811executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1812
1813 * C++ improvements
1814
1815We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1816info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1817symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1818
1819Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1820
1821 * Major bug fixes
1822
1823The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1824fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1825by the compiler.
1826
1827We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1828support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1829
1830John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1831slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1832that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1833purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1834the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1835mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1836
1837Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1838about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1839completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1840we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1841
1842 * AMD 29k support
1843
1844A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1845specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1846calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1847usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1848in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1849
1850We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1851Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1852of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1853resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1854
1855 * Remote interfaces
1856
1857We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1858with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1859message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1860This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1861needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1862breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1863each instruction being stepped through.
1864
1865The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1866registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1867
1868There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1869find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1870Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1871processor with a serial port.
1872
1873 * Configuration
1874
1875Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1876`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1877supported, and what files each one uses.
1878
1879 * Library changes
1880
1881There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1882disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1883Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1884disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1885
1886The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1887Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1888can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1889grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1890
1891 * Documentation
1892
1893The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1894reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1895as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1896encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1897system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1898bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1899
1900And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1901
1902
1903*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1904
1905 * Better support for C++ function names
1906
1907GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1908names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1909(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1910single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1911Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1912
1913GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1914the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1915You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1916lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1917for the list of formats.
1918
1919 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1920
1921Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1922C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1923directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1924can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1925usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1926about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1927this problem.)
1928
1929 * New 'maintenance' command
1930
1931All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1932the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1933can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1934
1935 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1936 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1937 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1938 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1939 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1940 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1941
1942The following commands are new:
1943
1944 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1945 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1946 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1947
1948 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1949
1950We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1951(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1952be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1953read after argv processing.
1954
1955 * New hosts supported
1956
1957Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1958
55241689 1959GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1960
1961We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1962is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1963for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1964masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1965fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1966It costs extra.
1967
1968 * New targets supported
1969
1970Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1971
1972 * More smarts about finding #include files
1973
1974GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1975all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1976greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1977especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1978the one that contains your sources.
1979
1980We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1981breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1982try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1983
1984 * Interesting infernals change
1985
1986GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1987section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1988target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1989stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1990
1991 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1992
1993There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1994 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1995 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1996
1997See the ChangeLog for details.
1998
1999*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2000
2001 * New machines supported (host and target)
2002
2003IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2004
2005SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2006
2007 * New malloc package
2008
2009GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2010Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2011capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2012This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2013pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2014more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2015
2016 * info proc
2017
2018The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2019'help info proc' for details.
2020
2021 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2022
2023The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2024Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2025possible.
2026
2027 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2028
2029Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2030support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2031conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2032environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2033that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2034in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2035
2036 * Cross byte order fixes
2037
2038Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2039targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2040
2041 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2042
2043If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2044system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2045`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2046program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2047called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2048Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2049and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2050the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2051option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2052starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2053
2054You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2055the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2056information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2057slower, but makes future operations faster.
2058
2059The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2060build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2061A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2062use is:
2063
2064 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2065
2066The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2067It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2068shared across multiple host platforms.
2069
2070 * longjmp() handling
2071
2072GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2073siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2074all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2075platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2076
2077 * Solaris 2.0
2078
2079Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2080this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2081reading symbols.
2082
2083 * Bug fixes
2084
2085As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2086People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2087crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2088
2089*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2090
2091 * New machines supported (host and target)
2092
2093SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2094 (except core files)
2095BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2096Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2097
2098 * New machines supported (target)
2099
2100AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2101
2102 * C++ support
2103
2104GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2105The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2106per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2107
2108GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2109`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2110extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2111good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2112will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2113released.
2114
2115 * New features for SVR4
2116
2117GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2118shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2119only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2120
2121The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2122on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2123it prints the address mappings of the process.
2124
2125If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2126bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2127
2128 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2129
2130Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2131now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2132skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2133make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2134same code linked statically.
2135
2136 * New Getopt
2137
2138GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2139version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2140continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2141Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2142added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2143future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2144
2145 * Bugs fixed
2146
2147The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2148Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2149See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2150
2151
2152*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2153
2154 * New machines supported (host and target)
2155
2156Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2157NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2158Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2159
2160 * Almost SCO Unix support
2161
2162We had hoped to support:
2163SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2164(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2165that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2166about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2167
2168 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2169
2170GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2171debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2172is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2173send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2174reqired (if any).
2175
2176 * New Readline
2177
2178GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2179is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2180required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2181
2182 * Bugs fixed
2183
2184The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2185Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2186See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2187
2188 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2189
2190GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2191supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2192symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2193
2194Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2195mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2196debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2197mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2198version 2.
2199
2200Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2201really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2202line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2203variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2204situation somewhat.
2205
2206When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2207However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2208methods.
2209
2210We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2211DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2212encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2213
2214
2215*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2216
2217 * Improved configuration
2218
2219Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2220Porting BFD is simpler.
2221
2222 * Stepping improved
2223
2224The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2225of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2226in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2227function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2228
2229 * Bug fixing
2230
2231Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2232
2233 * New host supported (not target)
2234
2235Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2236
2237
2238*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2239
2240 * Multiple source language support
2241
2242GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2243It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2244and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2245language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2246You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2247`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2248
2249 * GDB and Modula-2
2250
2251GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2252currently under development at the State University of New York at
2253Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2254continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2255
2256Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2257debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2258symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2259
2260There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2261in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2262
2263 * set write on/off
2264
2265GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2266a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2267the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2268by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2269effect immediately.
2270
2271 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2272
2273When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2274shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2275The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2276examining core files.
2277
2278 * set listsize
2279
2280You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2281The default is 10.
2282
2283 * New machines supported (host and target)
2284
2285SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2286Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2287Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2288
2289 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2290
2291IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2292
2293 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2294
2295AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2296AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2297Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2298
2299 * New remote interfaces
2300
2301AMD 29000 Adapt
2302AMD 29000 Minimon
2303
2304
2305*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2306
2307 * New Facilities
2308
2309Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2310
2311Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2312target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2313is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2314remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2315remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2316also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2317using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2318stub on the target system.
2319
2320New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2321
2322GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2323library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2324object file types such as a.out and coff.
2325
2326There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2327refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2328
2329
2330 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2331
2332All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2333by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2334
2335For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2336``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2337Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2338
2339What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2340print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2341will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2342all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2343
2344confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2345 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2346 it is already running. Default is ON.
2347
2348editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2349 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2350 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2351 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2352 Default is ON.
2353
2354history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2355 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2356 or the value of the environment variable
2357 GDBHISTFILE.
2358
2359history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2360 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2361 HISTSIZE.
2362
2363history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2364 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2365 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2366
2367history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2368 history expansion will be performed on
2369 command line input. The default is OFF.
2370
2371radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2372 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2373 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2374
2375height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2376 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2377 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2378 variable TERM.
2379
2380width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2381 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2382 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2383 variable TERM.
2384
2385Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2386``set width'' instead.
2387
2388print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2389 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2390 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2391 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2392
2393print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2394 is OFF.
2395
2396print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2397 "raw" form if off.
2398
2399print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2400 like instructions.
2401
2402print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2403
2404
2405 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2406
2407The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2408new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2409are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2410window.
2411
2412
2413 * Support for Shared Libraries
2414
2415GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2416Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2417before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2418happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2419At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2420from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2421shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2422It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2423
2424sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2425 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2426 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2427
2428info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2429
2430
2431 * Watchpoints
2432
2433A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2434expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2435tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2436quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2437problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2438more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2439
2440watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2441
2442info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2443
2444delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2445disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2446enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2447
2448
2449 * C++ multiple inheritance
2450
2451When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2452for C++ programs.
2453
2454 * C++ exception handling
2455
2456Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2457ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2458the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2459handler's context).
2460
2461catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2462 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2463 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2464
2465info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2466 current stack frame.
2467
2468
2469 * Minor command changes
2470
2471The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2472command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2473is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2474
2475The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2476at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2477frames without printing.
2478
2479 * New directory command
2480
2481'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2482The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2483about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2484with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2485find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2486
2487 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2488
2489For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2490for more details.
2491
2492GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2493two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2494Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2495where the program that you are debugging will run.