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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.4
5
6* New commands
7
8init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
9 only if it doesn't already have a value.
10
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11The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
12
13checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
14
15restart <n> Return the program state to a
16 previously saved state.
17
18info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
19
20delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
21
22set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
23 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
24
25info forks List forks of the user program that
26 are available to be debugged.
27
28fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
29 forks of the user program that are
30 available to be debugged.
31
32delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
33 that are available to be debugged (and
34 kill the forked process).
35
36detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
37 that are available to be debugged (and
38 allow the process to continue).
39
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40* New architecture
41
42Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
43
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44* Improved Windows host support
45
46GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
47native console support, and remote communications using either
48network sockets or serial ports.
49
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50* REMOVED features
51
52The ARM rdi-share module.
53
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54The Netware NLM debug server.
55
53e5f3cf 56*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 57
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58* New native configurations
59
02a677ac 60OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
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61OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
62
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63* New targets
64
65Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
66
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67* New command line options
68
69--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
70--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
71 the child (debugged) program exited with.
72--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
73 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
74 specified multiple times and in conjunction
75 with the --command (-x) option.
76
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77* Deprecated commands removed
78
79The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
80removed:
81
82 Command Replacement
83 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
84 othernames set arm disassembler
85 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
86 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
87 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
88 regs info registers
89
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90* New BSD user-level threads support
91
92It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
93library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
94configurations are:
95
96FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
97FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
98OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
99
100Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
101are not yet supported.
102
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103* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
104(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
105
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106* REMOVED configurations and files
107
108VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 109Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 110National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 111
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112* New "set print array-indexes" command
113
114After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
115when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
116behavior.
117
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118* VAX floating point support
119
120GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
121
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122* User-defined command support
123
124In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
125to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
126section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
127
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128*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
129
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130* New command line option
131
132GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
133debugging.
134
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135* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
136
137GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
138information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
139by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
140proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
141to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 142
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143* Internationalization
144
145When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
146internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
147continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
148
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149* Ada
150
151Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
152implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
153into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
154
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155* New native configurations
156
157GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
158
159* Remote 'p' packet
160
161GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
162packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
163
164* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
165
166GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
167The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
168features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
169i386 application).
170
171GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
172compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
173continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
174configurations:
175
176hppa-*-hpux
177ia64-*-aix
178mips-*-irix*
179*-*-lynx
180mips-*-linux-gnu
181sds protocol
182xdr protocol
183powerpc bdm protocol
184
185Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
186made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
187
188* OBSOLETE configurations and files
189
190Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
191been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
192configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
193permanently REMOVED.
194
195h8300-*-*
196mcore-*-*
197mn10300-*-*
198ns32k-*-*
199sh64-*-*
200v850-*-*
201
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202*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
203
204* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
205
206When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
207heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
208been fixed.
209
210* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
211
212When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
213fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
214IRIX long double values).
215
216* VAX and "next"
217
218A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
219command. This problem has been fixed.
220
860660cb 221*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 222
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223* Fix for ``many threads''
224
225On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
226rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
227error message:
228
229 ptrace: No such process.
230 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
231
232This problem has been fixed.
233
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234* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
235
236Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
237GDB to dump core).
238
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239* New ``start'' command.
240
241This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
242
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243* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
244
245Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
246live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
247platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
248
249FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
250FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
251NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
252NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
253NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
254OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
255OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
256OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
257OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
258
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259* Signal trampoline code overhauled
260
261Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
262These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
263of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
264call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
265signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
266
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267Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
268features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
269include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 270
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271* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
272
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273* New native configurations
274
97dc871c 275GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 276OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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277OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
278OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 279OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 280NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 281OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 282
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283* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
284
285GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
286The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
287including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
288migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
289compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
290work, was also included.
291
292GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
293module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
294
295h8300-*-*
296mcore-*-*
297mn10300-*-*
298ns32k-*-*
299sh64-*-*
300v850-*-*
301xstormy16-*-*
302
303Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
304made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
305
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306* REMOVED configurations and files
307
308Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
309Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
310Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
311Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
312Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
313AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
314Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
315decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
316riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
317sonymips mips-sony-*
318sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
319
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320*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
321
322* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
323
324The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
325GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
326command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
327program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
328with GDB".
329
330* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
331
332Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
333libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
334cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
335GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
336shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
337the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
338are created.
339
340Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
341
342* Fixed ISO-C build problems
343
344The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
345non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
346compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
347
348* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
349
350Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
351wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
352
353* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
354
355The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
356permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
357systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
358
359* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
360
361Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
362has been updated to use constant array sizes.
363
364* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
365
366GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
367its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
368panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
369
370* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
371
372When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
373by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
374not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
375
faae5abe 376*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 377
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378* Removed --with-mmalloc
379
380Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
381conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
382
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383* Changes in AMD64 configurations
384
385The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
386the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
387and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
388you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
389
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390* Revised SPARC target
391
392The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
393FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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394support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
395from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
396(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 397
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398* New C++ demangler
399
400GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
401names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
402with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
403programs.
404
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405* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
406
407GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
408arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
409encountered these.
410
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411* C++ nested types and namespaces
412
413GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
414improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
415is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
416Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
417namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
418"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
419frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
420if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
421GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
422
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423* New native configurations
424
425NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 426OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 427OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
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428OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
429OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 430
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431* New debugging protocols
432
433M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
434
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435* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
436
437The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
438and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
439tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
440
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441* OBSOLETE configurations and files
442
443Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
444been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
445configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
446permanently REMOVED.
447
448Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
449Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
450Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
451Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
452Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
453AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
454Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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455decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
456riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
457sonymips mips-sony-*
458sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 459
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460* REMOVED configurations and files
461
462SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
463SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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464Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
465Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
466H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
467HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
468HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
469HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
470PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 471386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
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472Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
473 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
474 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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475SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
476SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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477Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
478Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 479
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480*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
481
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482* Objective-C
483
484Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
485integrated into GDB.
486
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487* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
488
489DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
490information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
491By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
492backtraces.
493
494The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
495have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
496DWARF 2 CFI support.
497
498* Hosted file I/O.
499
500GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
501file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
502remote protocol documentation for details.
503
504* All targets using the new architecture framework.
505
506All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
507architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
508to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
509ppc32 on ppc64).
510
511* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
512
513GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
514per-thread variables.
515
516* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
517
518GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
519GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
520
521* Separate debug info.
522
523GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
524automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
525of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
526system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
527and optional debug files.
528
529* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
530
531DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
532describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
533debugger.
534
535GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
536for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
537
538* Java
539
540A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
541Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
542considered "useable".
543
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544* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
545
546The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
547commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
548kernel.
549
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550* GDB supports logging output to a file
551
552There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
553used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 554
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555* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
556
557The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
558disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
559command.
560
e286caf2 561* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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562
563The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
564registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
565
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566* Profiling support
567
568A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
569be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
570session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
571"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
572data, for more informative profiling results.
573
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574* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
575
576The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
577option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 578"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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579
580Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
581removed.
582
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583Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
584Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
585Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
586 in a subsequent -var-update.
587
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588* New native configurations.
589
590FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
591
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592* Multi-arched targets.
593
b4263afa 594HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 595Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 596
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597* OBSOLETE configurations and files
598
599Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
600been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
601configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
602permanently REMOVED.
603
8b0e5691 604Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 605Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 606H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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607HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
608HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
609HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 610PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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611Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
612 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
613 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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614Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
615Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 616
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617* REMOVED configurations and files
618
619V850EA ISA
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620Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
621IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
622i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
623i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
624i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
625HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
626 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
627 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
628Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
629Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
630Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
631OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
632I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 633
a094c6fb
AC
634* MIPS $fp behavior changed
635
636The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
637the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
638context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
639address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
640The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
641
299ffc64 642*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 643
46248966
AC
644* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
645
646When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
647`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
648in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
649library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
650shared libs like mad''.
651
b9d14705 652* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 653
b9d14705
DJ
654Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
655the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
656arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
657powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 658
e0e9281e
JB
659* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
660
661GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
662and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
663they expand.
664
dd73b9bb
AC
665The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
666invocations in expression, and shows the result.
667
668The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
669macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
670
e0e9281e
JB
671Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
672information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
673your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
674information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
675
2250ee0c
CV
676* Multi-arched targets.
677
6e3ba3b8
JT
678DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
679DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 680NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 681National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
682Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
683Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 684
cd9bfe15 685* New targets.
e33ce519 686
456f8b9d
DB
687Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
688
e33ce519 689
da8ca43d
JT
690* New native configurations
691
692Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 693SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 694MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 695UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 696
cd9bfe15
AC
697* OBSOLETE configurations and files
698
699Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
700been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
701configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
702permanently REMOVED.
703
92eb23c5 704Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 705OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 706IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 707Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 708Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 709Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
710i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
711i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
712i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
713HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
714 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
715 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 716I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 717
db034ac5
AC
718* OBSOLETE languages
719
720CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
721
cd9bfe15
AC
722* REMOVED configurations and files
723
724AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
725A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
726AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
727AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
728AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
729
730testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
731
20f01a46
DH
732* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
733
734This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
735commands. The default is 1024.
736
a5941fbf
MK
737* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
738
739Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
740
89743e04
MS
741* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
742
743These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
744to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
745from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 746
9fb14e79
JB
747* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
748
749The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
750including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
751of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
752
2037aebb
AC
753*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
754
755* New targets.
756
757Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
758
759* Bug fixes
760
761gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
762mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
763Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
764
765gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
766dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
767Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
768
769Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
770Surprisingly enough, it works now.
771By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
772
773i386 hardware watchpoint support:
774avoid misses on second run for some targets.
775By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
776
37057839 777*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 778
1a703748
MS
779* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
780
781This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
782really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
783In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
784target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
785This can be a significant performance improvement on some
786(notably embedded) targets.
787
cefd4ef5
MS
788* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
789
55241689
AC
790This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
791process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
792GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
793hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 794
352ed7b4
MS
795* New command line option
796
797GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
798
799* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
800
801There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
802command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
803a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
804be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
805open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
806issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
807a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
808it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
809GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
810is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
811
fe419ffc
RE
812* Changes in ARM configurations.
813
814Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
815configuration is fully multi-arch.
816
eb7cedd9
MK
817* New native configurations
818
fe419ffc 819ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 820x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 821AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 822Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 823
c9f63e6b
CV
824* New targets
825
826Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
827
9b4ff276
AC
828* OBSOLETE configurations and files
829
830Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
831been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
832configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
833permanently REMOVED.
834
835AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
836A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
837AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
838AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
839AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
840
b4ceaee6 841testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 842
e2caac18
AC
843* REMOVED configurations and files
844
845TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 846WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
847PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
848PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
849PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 850Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
851Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
852 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 853SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 854Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
855Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
856ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 857Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 858
c2a727fa
TT
859* Changes to command line processing
860
861The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
862for the inferior from gdb's command line.
863
467d8519
TT
864* Changes to key bindings
865
866There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
867
7072a954
AC
868*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
869
870Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
871
872Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
873corrupted.
874
875Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
876
877Numerous documentation fixes.
878
879Numerous testsuite fixes.
880
34f47bc4 881*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
882
883* New native configurations
884
885Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
886x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 887MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
888MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
889ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 890s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 891
bf64bfd6
AC
892* New targets
893
def90278 894Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 895CRIS cris-axis
55241689 896UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 897
17e78a56 898* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
899
900x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 901Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
902Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
903 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
904TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
905WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 906Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
907PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
908PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
909PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 910SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
911Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
912ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 913Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 914
17e78a56
AC
915stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
916kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
917
7fcca85b
AC
918Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
919been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
920configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
921permanently REMOVED.
922
a196c81c 923* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
924
925Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
926Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
927Pyramid pyramid-*-*
928ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
929Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 930ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 931
6d6b80e5 932* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 933
6d6b80e5 934GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
935sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
936present.
937
bf64bfd6
AC
938* Other news:
939
e23194cb
EZ
940* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
941
942* The MI enabled by default.
943
944The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
945revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
946engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
947using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
948which is now deprecated.
949
950* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
951
952GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
953main features are supported:
954
955 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
956
957 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
958 extension;
959
960 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
961
962 - a Pascal expression parser.
963
964However, some important features are not yet supported.
965
966 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
967
968 - there are some problems with boolean types;
969
970 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
971 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
972
973 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
974
975 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
976
977* Changes in completion.
978
979Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
980to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
981users expect at the shell prompt.
982
983Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
984`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
985program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
986files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
987be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
988considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
989name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
990
991`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
992
993* New platform-independent commands:
994
995It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
996hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
997documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
998
999* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1000
d7275149
MK
1001Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1002revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1003many threads as your system allows you to have.
1004
e23194cb
EZ
1005Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1006
d7275149
MK
1007Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1008multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1009
1010* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1011
1012Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1013
e23194cb
EZ
1014GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1015debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1016supported.)
1017
1018* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1019
1020Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1021breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1022implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1023put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1024and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1025registers.
1026
1027The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1028debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1029watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1030
1031* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1032
1033New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1034the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1035
1036New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1037display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1038IDT.
1039
1040New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1041from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1042New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1043a given linear address.
1044
1045GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1046program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1047which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1048
1049DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1050
6c56c069
EZ
1051It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1052
e23194cb
EZ
1053* Changes in documentation.
1054
1055All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1056Documentation License.
1057
1058Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1059manual.
1060
1061TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1062
1063Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1064manual.
1065
1066The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1067documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1068hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1069
5d6640b1
AC
1070* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1071
1072The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1073``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1074contents of this file.
1075
1a1d8446
AC
1076* gdba.el deleted
1077
1078GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1079
9debab2f 1080*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1081
c63ce875
EZ
1082* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1083
1084Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1085programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1086displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1087greater level of detail.
1088
1089* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1090
1091It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1092bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1093on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1094written.
1095
1096* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1097
1098The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1099necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1100machines ``out of the box''.
1101
1102The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1103possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1104signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1105would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1106interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1107
1108It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1109standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1110even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1111and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1112terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1113
1114The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1115enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1116also works.
1117
1118DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1119GDB.
1120
1121It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1122directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1123times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1124breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1125
ed9a39eb
JM
1126* New native configurations
1127
1128ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1129PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1130
7a292a7a
SS
1131* New targets
1132
96baa820 1133Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1134x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1135PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1136TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1137
085dd6e6
JM
1138* OBSOLETE configurations
1139
1140Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1141Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1142Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1143ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1144Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1145
9debab2f
AC
1146Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1147but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1148these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1149be permanently REMOVED.
1150
5330533d
SS
1151* Gould support removed
1152
1153Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1154
bc9e5bbf
AC
1155* New features for SVR4
1156
1157On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1158without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1159load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1160
1161* Many C++ enhancements
1162
1163C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1164in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1165
adf40b2e
JM
1166* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1167
1168A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1169sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1170with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1171``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1172
1173 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1174 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1175
43e526b9
JM
1176* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1177
1178A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1179expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1180instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1181
1182The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1183added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1184
96baa820
JM
1185* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1186
1187The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1188``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1189include ``set remote P-packet''.
1190
11cf8741
JM
1191* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1192
1193The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1194accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1195``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1196
7876dd43
DB
1197* ``apropos'' command added.
1198
1199The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1200documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1201try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1202
bc9e5bbf
AC
1203* New MI interface
1204
1205A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1206interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1207process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1208"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1209enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1210
1211 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1212
c906108c
SS
1213*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1214
1215* New native configurations
1216
1217HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1218HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1219M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1220
1221* New targets
1222
1223Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1224Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1225Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1226
1227* OBSOLETE configurations
1228
1229Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1230
1231Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1232but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1233these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1234be permanently REMOVED.
1235
1236* ANSI/ISO C
1237
1238As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1239buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1240containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1241use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1242available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1243configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1244information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1245already.
1246
1247* Readline 2.2
1248
1249GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1250
1251* set extension-language
1252
1253You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1254languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1255you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1256 set extension-language .c c++
1257The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1258and their associated languages.
1259
1260* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1261
1262When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1263you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1264PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1265
1266 set processor NAME
1267
1268sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1269following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1270
1271 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1272 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1273 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1274 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1275 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1276 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1277 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1278 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1279 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1280 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1281 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1282
1283At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1284special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1285registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1286only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1287
1288* HP-UX support
1289
1290Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1291more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1292library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1293support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1294for xdb and dbx commands.
1295
1296* Catchpoints
1297
1298HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1299generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1300to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1301
1302This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1303argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1304output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1305
1306* Debugging across forks
1307
1308On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1309in the inferior.
1310
1311* TUI
1312
1313HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1314it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1315configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1316
1317* GDB remote protocol additions
1318
1319A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1320Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1321fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1322allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1323
1324For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1325full 64-bit address. The command
1326
1327 set remoteaddresssize 32
1328
1329can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1330the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1331will be discarded.
1332
1333In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1334command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1335
1336 maint packet heythere
1337
1338sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1339disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1340time.
1341
1342The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1343target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1344downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1345
1346* Tracing can collect general expressions
1347
1348You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1349further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1350doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1351
1352* mask-address variable for Mips
1353
1354For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1355a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1356of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1357
1358* Higher serial baud rates
1359
1360GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1361230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1362to achieve all of these rates.)
1363
1364* i960 simulator
1365
1366The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1367builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1368
1369
1370*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1371
1372* New native configurations
1373
1374Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1375Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1376Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1377PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1378PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1379Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1380Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1381
1382* New targets
1383
1384Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1385Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1386Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1387Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1388MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1389MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1390MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1391Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1392Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1393Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1394NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1395
1396* New debugging protocols
1397
1398ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1399M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1400DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1401PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1402PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1403Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1404
1405* DWARF 2
1406
1407All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1408format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1409information.
1410
1411* Java frontend
1412
1413GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1414only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1415
1416* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1417
1418For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1419loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1420locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1421
1422* Live range splitting
1423
1424GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1425range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1426more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1427
1428* Hurd support
1429
1430GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1431updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1432
1433* ARM Thumb support
1434
1435GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1436instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1437instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1438accordingly.
1439
1440* MIPS16 support
1441
1442GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1443instruction set.
1444
1445* Overlay support
1446
1447GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1448linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1449will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1450control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1451additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1452in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1453
1454* info symbol
1455
1456The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1457the symbol at the specified address.
1458
1459* Trace support
1460
1461The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1462asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1463extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1464includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1465file tracepoint.c for more details.
1466
1467* MIPS simulator
1468
1469Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1470by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1471of most MIPS variants.
1472
1473* Sparc simulator
1474
1475Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1476by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1477Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1478
1479* set architecture
1480
1481For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1482basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1483architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1484the possible architectures.
1485
1486*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1487
1488* New native configurations
1489
1490Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1491M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1492PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1493PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1494PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1495RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1496
1497* New targets
1498
1499ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1500I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1501MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1502MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1503PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1504Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1505Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1506
1507* PowerPC simulator
1508
1509The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1510contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1511PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1512basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1513performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1514
1515* Solaris 2.5
1516
1517GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1518
1519* Windows 95/NT native
1520
1521GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1522To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1523which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1524Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1525ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1526
1527* dont-repeat command
1528
1529If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1530command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1531useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1532extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1533
1534* Send break instead of ^C
1535
1536The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1537rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1538GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1539
1540* Remote protocol timeout
1541
1542The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1543that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1544to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1545
1546* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1547
1548By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1549loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1550stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1551when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1552in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1553
1554Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1555/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1556automatically on hpux10.
1557
1558* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1559
1560Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1561
1562* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1563
1564When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1565may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1566the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1567every character. The default value is 1050.
1568
1569* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1570
1571If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1572a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1573replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1574details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1575remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1576to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1577
1578* Speedups for remote debugging
1579
1580GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1581the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1582and more efficient S-record downloading.
1583
1584* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1585
1586GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1587Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1588
1589*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1590
1591* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1592
1593The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1594can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1595
1596* Remote targets use caching
1597
1598Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1599remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1600it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1601debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1602off' turns the the data cache off.
1603
1604* Remote targets may have threads
1605
1606The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1607in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1608gdb/remote.c for details.
1609
1610* NetROM support
1611
1612If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1613support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1614acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1615write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1616support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1617another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1618sequence is something like
1619
1620 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1621 load <prog>
1622 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1623
1624* Macintosh host
1625
1626GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1627may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1628it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1629available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1630device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1631directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1632scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1633mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1634
1635* Autoconf
1636
1637GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1638but does simplify configuration and building.
1639
1640* hpux10
1641
1642GDB now supports hpux10.
1643
1644*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1645
1646* New native configurations
1647
1648x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1649x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1650NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1651Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1652
1653* New targets
1654
1655A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1656HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1657CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1658PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1659WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1660
1661* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1662
1663GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1664possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1665filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1666the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1667if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1668
1669* Arguments to user-defined commands
1670
1671User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1672Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1673trivial example:
1674define adder
1675 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1676
1677To execute the command use:
1678adder 1 2 3
1679
1680Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1681Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1682use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1683
1684* New `if' and `while' commands
1685
1686This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1687commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1688expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1689execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1690terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1691`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1692if the expression is zero.
1693
1694* Fortran source language mode
1695
1696GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1697Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1698variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1699with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1700Fortran compilers.
1701
1702* Better HPUX support
1703
1704Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1705running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1706processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1707for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1708that behavior do the following before running the program:
1709
1710 adb -w a.out
1711 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1712 control-d
1713
1714This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1715To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1716
1717 adb -w a.out
1718 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1719 control-d
1720
1721You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1722the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1723external linkage.
1724
1725GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1726HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1727
1728* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1729
1730You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1731commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1732current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1733"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1734associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1735configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1736
1737* New DOS host serial code
1738
1739This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1740no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1741a PC's serial port.
1742
1743*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1744
1745* New "complete" command
1746
1747This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1748were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1749
1750* Trailing space optional in prompt
1751
1752"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1753allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1754
1755* Breakpoint hit counts
1756
1757"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1758has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1759can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1760to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1761less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1762that breakpoint.
1763
1764* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1765
1766"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1767an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1768arrays actually contain only short strings.
1769
1770* Shared library breakpoints
1771
1772In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1773breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1774
1775* Hardware watchpoints
1776
1777There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1778targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1779
55241689 1780Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1781
1782* Annotations
1783
1784Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1785and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1786
1787* Improved Irix 5 support
1788
1789GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1790
1791* Improved HPPA support
1792
1793GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1794
1795* New native configurations
1796
1797Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1798HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1799Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1800RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1801
1802* New targets
1803
1804OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1805MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1806Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1807
1808* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1809
1810There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1811This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1812
1813* Fixes
1814
1815As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1816and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1817
1818*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1819
1820* Irix 5 is now supported
1821
1822* HPPA support
1823
1824GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1825to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1826GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1827of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1828can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1829
1830
1831*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1832
1833* User visible changes:
1834
1835* Remote Debugging
1836
1837The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1838target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1839debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1840integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1841debugging info for the mips target).
1842
1843* DEC Alpha native support
1844
1845GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1846debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1847work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1848Alpha-specific notes.
1849
1850* Preliminary thread implementation
1851
1852GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1853
1854* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1855
1856This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1857to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1858for details).
1859
1860* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1861
1862This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1863mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1864call methods, ...etc.
1865
1866*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1867
1868 * User visible changes:
1869
1870Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1871supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1872other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1873somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1874
1875Filename completion now works.
1876
1877When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1878arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1879addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1880
1881All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1882vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1883should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1884your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1885to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1886
1887 * DEC alpha support
1888
1889This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1890cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1891
1892
1893*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1894
1895 * Testsuite
1896
1897This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1898The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1899via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1900
1901 * C++ demangling
1902
1903'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1904emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1905Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1906disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1907use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1908
1909 * Simulators
1910
1911GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1912So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1913Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1914
1915 * New targets supported
1916
1917H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1918H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1919SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1920Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1921IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1922
1923Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1924version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1925GO32 memory extender.
1926
1927 * New remote protocols
1928
1929MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1930
1931 * New source languages supported
1932
1933This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1934used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1935into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1936
1937
1938*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1939
1940 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1941
1942GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1943version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1944University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1945compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1946format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1947(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1948
1949Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1950
1951 * Faster and better demangling
1952
1953We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1954demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1955character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1956only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1957This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1958increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1959symbol lookups.
1960
1961`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1962from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1963compiler does not actually implement.
1964
1965 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1966
1967In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1968inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1969recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1970very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1971The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1972circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1973fix.
1974
1975The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1976release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1977
1978 * Improved configure script
1979
1980The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1981you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1982host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1983done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1984
1985We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1986version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1987`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1988The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1989only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1990We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1991
1992 * Documentation improvements
1993
1994There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1995produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1996before submitting changes.
1997
1998The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1999M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2000`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2001you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2002a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2003
2004*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2005We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2006been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2007or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2008`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2009around this problem.
2010
2011 * New features
2012
2013GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2014the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2015`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2016the target program.
2017
2018The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2019how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2020
2021 * New native hosts supported
2022
2023HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2024386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2025
2026 * New targets supported
2027
2028AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2029
2030 * New file formats supported
2031
2032BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2033HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2034
2035 * Major bug fixes
2036
2037Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2038
2039We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2040printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2041
2042We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2043for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2044release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2045
2046You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2047will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2048
2049We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2050for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2051especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2052libraries.
2053
2054The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2055information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2056command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2057any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2058when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2059
2060 * Internal improvements
2061
2062GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2063debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2064
2065GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2066Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2067symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2068contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2069shared code that handles any of them.
2070
2071 * New command line options
2072
2073We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2074
2075 * Mmalloc licensing
2076
2077The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2078General Public License.
2079
2080*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2081
2082 * Host/native/target split
2083
2084GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2085hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2086target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2087local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2088ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2089
2090The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2091GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2092is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2093code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2094any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2095built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2096handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2097
2098GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2099It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2100plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2101
2102 * New hosts supported
2103
2104HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2105386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2106386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2107
2108 * New targets supported
2109
2110Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
211168030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2112
2113 * New native hosts supported
2114
2115386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2116 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2117386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2118
2119 * New file formats supported
2120
2121BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2122supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2123format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2124
2125 * New commands
2126
2127`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2128`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2129These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2130
2131`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2132
2133You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2134scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2135prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2136executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2137
2138 * C++ improvements
2139
2140We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2141info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2142symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2143
2144Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2145
2146 * Major bug fixes
2147
2148The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2149fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2150by the compiler.
2151
2152We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2153support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2154
2155John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2156slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2157that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2158purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2159the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2160mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2161
2162Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2163about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2164completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2165we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2166
2167 * AMD 29k support
2168
2169A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2170specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2171calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2172usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2173in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2174
2175We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2176Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2177of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2178resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2179
2180 * Remote interfaces
2181
2182We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2183with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2184message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2185This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2186needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2187breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2188each instruction being stepped through.
2189
2190The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2191registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2192
2193There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2194find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2195Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2196processor with a serial port.
2197
2198 * Configuration
2199
2200Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2201`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2202supported, and what files each one uses.
2203
2204 * Library changes
2205
2206There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2207disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2208Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2209disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2210
2211The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2212Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2213can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2214grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2215
2216 * Documentation
2217
2218The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2219reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2220as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2221encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2222system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2223bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2224
2225And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2226
2227
2228*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2229
2230 * Better support for C++ function names
2231
2232GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2233names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2234(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2235single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2236Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2237
2238GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2239the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2240You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2241lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2242for the list of formats.
2243
2244 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2245
2246Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2247C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2248directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2249can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2250usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2251about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2252this problem.)
2253
2254 * New 'maintenance' command
2255
2256All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2257the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2258can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2259
2260 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2261 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2262 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2263 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2264 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2265 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2266
2267The following commands are new:
2268
2269 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2270 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2271 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2272
2273 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2274
2275We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2276(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2277be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2278read after argv processing.
2279
2280 * New hosts supported
2281
2282Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2283
55241689 2284GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2285
2286We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2287is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2288for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2289masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2290fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2291It costs extra.
2292
2293 * New targets supported
2294
2295Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2296
2297 * More smarts about finding #include files
2298
2299GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2300all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2301greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2302especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2303the one that contains your sources.
2304
2305We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2306breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2307try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2308
2309 * Interesting infernals change
2310
2311GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2312section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2313target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2314stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2315
2316 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2317
2318There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2319 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2320 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2321
2322See the ChangeLog for details.
2323
2324*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2325
2326 * New machines supported (host and target)
2327
2328IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2329
2330SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2331
2332 * New malloc package
2333
2334GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2335Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2336capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2337This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2338pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2339more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2340
2341 * info proc
2342
2343The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2344'help info proc' for details.
2345
2346 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2347
2348The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2349Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2350possible.
2351
2352 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2353
2354Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2355support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2356conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2357environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2358that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2359in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2360
2361 * Cross byte order fixes
2362
2363Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2364targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2365
2366 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2367
2368If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2369system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2370`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2371program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2372called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2373Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2374and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2375the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2376option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2377starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2378
2379You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2380the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2381information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2382slower, but makes future operations faster.
2383
2384The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2385build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2386A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2387use is:
2388
2389 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2390
2391The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2392It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2393shared across multiple host platforms.
2394
2395 * longjmp() handling
2396
2397GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2398siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2399all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2400platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2401
2402 * Solaris 2.0
2403
2404Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2405this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2406reading symbols.
2407
2408 * Bug fixes
2409
2410As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2411People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2412crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2413
2414*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2415
2416 * New machines supported (host and target)
2417
2418SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2419 (except core files)
2420BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2421Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2422
2423 * New machines supported (target)
2424
2425AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2426
2427 * C++ support
2428
2429GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2430The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2431per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2432
2433GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2434`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2435extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2436good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2437will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2438released.
2439
2440 * New features for SVR4
2441
2442GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2443shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2444only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2445
2446The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2447on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2448it prints the address mappings of the process.
2449
2450If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2451bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2452
2453 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2454
2455Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2456now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2457skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2458make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2459same code linked statically.
2460
2461 * New Getopt
2462
2463GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2464version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2465continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2466Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2467added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2468future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2469
2470 * Bugs fixed
2471
2472The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2473Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2474See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2475
2476
2477*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2478
2479 * New machines supported (host and target)
2480
2481Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2482NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2483Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2484
2485 * Almost SCO Unix support
2486
2487We had hoped to support:
2488SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2489(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2490that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2491about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2492
2493 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2494
2495GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2496debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2497is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2498send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2499reqired (if any).
2500
2501 * New Readline
2502
2503GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2504is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2505required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2506
2507 * Bugs fixed
2508
2509The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2510Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2511See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2512
2513 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2514
2515GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2516supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2517symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2518
2519Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2520mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2521debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2522mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2523version 2.
2524
2525Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2526really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2527line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2528variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2529situation somewhat.
2530
2531When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2532However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2533methods.
2534
2535We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2536DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2537encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2538
2539
2540*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2541
2542 * Improved configuration
2543
2544Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2545Porting BFD is simpler.
2546
2547 * Stepping improved
2548
2549The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2550of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2551in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2552function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2553
2554 * Bug fixing
2555
2556Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2557
2558 * New host supported (not target)
2559
2560Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2561
2562
2563*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2564
2565 * Multiple source language support
2566
2567GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2568It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2569and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2570language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2571You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2572`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2573
2574 * GDB and Modula-2
2575
2576GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2577currently under development at the State University of New York at
2578Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2579continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2580
2581Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2582debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2583symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2584
2585There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2586in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2587
2588 * set write on/off
2589
2590GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2591a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2592the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2593by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2594effect immediately.
2595
2596 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2597
2598When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2599shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2600The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2601examining core files.
2602
2603 * set listsize
2604
2605You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2606The default is 10.
2607
2608 * New machines supported (host and target)
2609
2610SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2611Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2612Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2613
2614 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2615
2616IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2617
2618 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2619
2620AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2621AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2622Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2623
2624 * New remote interfaces
2625
2626AMD 29000 Adapt
2627AMD 29000 Minimon
2628
2629
2630*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2631
2632 * New Facilities
2633
2634Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2635
2636Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2637target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2638is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2639remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2640remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2641also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2642using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2643stub on the target system.
2644
2645New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2646
2647GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2648library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2649object file types such as a.out and coff.
2650
2651There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2652refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2653
2654
2655 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2656
2657All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2658by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2659
2660For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2661``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2662Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2663
2664What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2665print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2666will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2667all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2668
2669confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2670 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2671 it is already running. Default is ON.
2672
2673editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2674 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2675 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2676 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2677 Default is ON.
2678
2679history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2680 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2681 or the value of the environment variable
2682 GDBHISTFILE.
2683
2684history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2685 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2686 HISTSIZE.
2687
2688history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2689 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2690 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2691
2692history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2693 history expansion will be performed on
2694 command line input. The default is OFF.
2695
2696radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2697 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2698 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2699
2700height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2701 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2702 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2703 variable TERM.
2704
2705width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2706 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2707 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2708 variable TERM.
2709
2710Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2711``set width'' instead.
2712
2713print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2714 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2715 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2716 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2717
2718print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2719 is OFF.
2720
2721print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2722 "raw" form if off.
2723
2724print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2725 like instructions.
2726
2727print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2728
2729
2730 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2731
2732The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2733new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2734are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2735window.
2736
2737
2738 * Support for Shared Libraries
2739
2740GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2741Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2742before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2743happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2744At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2745from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2746shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2747It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2748
2749sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2750 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2751 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2752
2753info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2754
2755
2756 * Watchpoints
2757
2758A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2759expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2760tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2761quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2762problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2763more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2764
2765watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2766
2767info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2768
2769delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2770disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2771enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2772
2773
2774 * C++ multiple inheritance
2775
2776When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2777for C++ programs.
2778
2779 * C++ exception handling
2780
2781Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2782ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2783the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2784handler's context).
2785
2786catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2787 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2788 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2789
2790info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2791 current stack frame.
2792
2793
2794 * Minor command changes
2795
2796The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2797command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2798is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2799
2800The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2801at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2802frames without printing.
2803
2804 * New directory command
2805
2806'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2807The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2808about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2809with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2810find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2811
2812 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2813
2814For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2815for more details.
2816
2817GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2818two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2819Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2820where the program that you are debugging will run.