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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 6.5
5
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6* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
7(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
8running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
9
10* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
11Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
12supported.
13
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14* REMOVED features
15
16The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
17
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18Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
19an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
20
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21* New remote packets
22
23qSupported:
24 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
25 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
26 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
27 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
28 target.
29
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30qXfer:auxv:read:
31 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
32 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
33
34* Removed remote packets
35
36qPart:auxv:read:
37 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
38 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
39
e374b601 40*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 41
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42* New targets
43
44Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
45
46Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
47
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48* New commands
49
50init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
51 only if it doesn't already have a value.
52
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53The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
54
55checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
56
57restart <n> Return the program state to a
58 previously saved state.
59
60info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
61
62delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
63
64set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
65 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
66
67info forks List forks of the user program that
68 are available to be debugged.
69
70fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
71 forks of the user program that are
72 available to be debugged.
73
74delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
75 that are available to be debugged (and
76 kill the forked process).
77
78detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
79 that are available to be debugged (and
80 allow the process to continue).
81
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82* New architecture
83
84Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
85
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86* Improved Windows host support
87
88GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
89native console support, and remote communications using either
90network sockets or serial ports.
91
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92* Improved Modula-2 language support
93
94GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
95basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
96pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
97printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
98written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
99GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
100
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101* REMOVED features
102
103The ARM rdi-share module.
104
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105The Netware NLM debug server.
106
53e5f3cf 107*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 108
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109* New native configurations
110
02a677ac 111OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
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112OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
113
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114* New targets
115
116Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
117
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118* New command line options
119
120--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
121--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
122 the child (debugged) program exited with.
123--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
124 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
125 specified multiple times and in conjunction
126 with the --command (-x) option.
127
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128* Deprecated commands removed
129
130The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
131removed:
132
133 Command Replacement
134 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
135 othernames set arm disassembler
136 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
137 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
138 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
139 regs info registers
140
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141* New BSD user-level threads support
142
143It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
144library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
145configurations are:
146
147FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
148FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
149OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
150
151Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
152are not yet supported.
153
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154* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
155(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
156
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157* REMOVED configurations and files
158
159VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 160Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 161National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 162
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163* New "set print array-indexes" command
164
165After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
166when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
167behavior.
168
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169* VAX floating point support
170
171GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
172
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173* User-defined command support
174
175In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
176to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
177section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
178
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179*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
180
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181* New command line option
182
183GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
184debugging.
185
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186* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
187
188GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
189information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
190by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
191proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
192to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 193
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194* Internationalization
195
196When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
197internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
198continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
199
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200* Ada
201
202Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
203implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
204into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
205
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206* New native configurations
207
208GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
209
210* Remote 'p' packet
211
212GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
213packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
214
215* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
216
217GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
218The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
219features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
220i386 application).
221
222GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
223compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
224continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
225configurations:
226
227hppa-*-hpux
228ia64-*-aix
229mips-*-irix*
230*-*-lynx
231mips-*-linux-gnu
232sds protocol
233xdr protocol
234powerpc bdm protocol
235
236Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
237made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
238
239* OBSOLETE configurations and files
240
241Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
242been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
243configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
244permanently REMOVED.
245
246h8300-*-*
247mcore-*-*
248mn10300-*-*
249ns32k-*-*
250sh64-*-*
251v850-*-*
252
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253*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
254
255* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
256
257When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
258heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
259been fixed.
260
261* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
262
263When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
264fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
265IRIX long double values).
266
267* VAX and "next"
268
269A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
270command. This problem has been fixed.
271
860660cb 272*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 273
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274* Fix for ``many threads''
275
276On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
277rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
278error message:
279
280 ptrace: No such process.
281 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
282
283This problem has been fixed.
284
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285* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
286
287Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
288GDB to dump core).
289
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290* New ``start'' command.
291
292This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
293
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294* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
295
296Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
297live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
298platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
299
300FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
301FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
302NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
303NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
304NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
305OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
306OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
307OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
308OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
309
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310* Signal trampoline code overhauled
311
312Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
313These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
314of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
315call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
316signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
317
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318Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
319features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
320include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 321
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322* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
323
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324* New native configurations
325
97dc871c 326GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 327OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
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328OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
329OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 330OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 331NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 332OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 333
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334* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
335
336GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
337The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
338including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
339migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
340compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
341work, was also included.
342
343GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
344module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
345
346h8300-*-*
347mcore-*-*
348mn10300-*-*
349ns32k-*-*
350sh64-*-*
351v850-*-*
352xstormy16-*-*
353
354Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
355made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
356
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357* REMOVED configurations and files
358
359Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
360Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
361Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
362Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
363Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
364AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
365Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
366decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
367riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
368sonymips mips-sony-*
369sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
370
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371*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
372
373* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
374
375The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
376GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
377command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
378program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
379with GDB".
380
381* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
382
383Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
384libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
385cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
386GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
387shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
388the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
389are created.
390
391Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
392
393* Fixed ISO-C build problems
394
395The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
396non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
397compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
398
399* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
400
401Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
402wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
403
404* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
405
406The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
407permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
408systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
409
410* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
411
412Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
413has been updated to use constant array sizes.
414
415* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
416
417GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
418its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
419panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
420
421* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
422
423When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
424by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
425not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
426
faae5abe 427*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 428
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429* Removed --with-mmalloc
430
431Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
432conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
433
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434* Changes in AMD64 configurations
435
436The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
437the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
438and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
439you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
440
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441* Revised SPARC target
442
443The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
444FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
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445support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
446from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
447(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 448
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449* New C++ demangler
450
451GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
452names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
453with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
454programs.
455
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456* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
457
458GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
459arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
460encountered these.
461
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462* C++ nested types and namespaces
463
464GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
465improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
466is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
467Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
468namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
469"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
470frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
471if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
472GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
473
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474* New native configurations
475
476NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 477OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 478OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
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479OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
480OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 481
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482* New debugging protocols
483
484M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
485
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486* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
487
488The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
489and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
490tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
491
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492* OBSOLETE configurations and files
493
494Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
495been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
496configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
497permanently REMOVED.
498
499Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
500Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
501Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
502Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
503Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
504AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
505Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
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506decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
507riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
508sonymips mips-sony-*
509sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 510
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511* REMOVED configurations and files
512
513SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
514SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
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515Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
516Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
517H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
518HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
519HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
520HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
521PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 522386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
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523Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
524 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
525 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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526SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
527SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
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528Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
529Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 530
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531*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
532
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533* Objective-C
534
535Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
536integrated into GDB.
537
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538* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
539
540DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
541information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
542By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
543backtraces.
544
545The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
546have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
547DWARF 2 CFI support.
548
549* Hosted file I/O.
550
551GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
552file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
553remote protocol documentation for details.
554
555* All targets using the new architecture framework.
556
557All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
558architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
559to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
560ppc32 on ppc64).
561
562* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
563
564GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
565per-thread variables.
566
567* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
568
569GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
570GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
571
572* Separate debug info.
573
574GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
575automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
576of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
577system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
578and optional debug files.
579
580* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
581
582DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
583describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
584debugger.
585
586GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
587for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
588
589* Java
590
591A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
592Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
593considered "useable".
594
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595* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
596
597The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
598commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
599kernel.
600
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601* GDB supports logging output to a file
602
603There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
604used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 605
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606* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
607
608The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
609disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
610command.
611
e286caf2 612* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
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613
614The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
615registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
616
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617* Profiling support
618
619A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
620be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
621session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
622"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
623data, for more informative profiling results.
624
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625* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
626
627The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
628option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 629"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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630
631Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
632removed.
633
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634Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
635Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
636Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
637 in a subsequent -var-update.
638
954a4db8
MK
639* New native configurations.
640
641FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
642
6760f9e6
JB
643* Multi-arched targets.
644
b4263afa 645HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 646Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 647
1b831c93
AC
648* OBSOLETE configurations and files
649
650Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
651been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
652configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
653permanently REMOVED.
654
8b0e5691 655Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 656Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 657H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
658HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
659HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
660HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 661PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
662Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
663 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
664 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
665Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
666Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 667
5835abe7
NC
668* REMOVED configurations and files
669
670V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
671Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
672IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
673i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
674i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
675i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
676HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
677 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
678 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
679Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
680Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
681Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
682OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
683I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 684
a094c6fb
AC
685* MIPS $fp behavior changed
686
687The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
688the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
689context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
690address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
691The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
692
299ffc64 693*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 694
46248966
AC
695* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
696
697When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
698`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
699in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
700library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
701shared libs like mad''.
702
b9d14705 703* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 704
b9d14705
DJ
705Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
706the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
707arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
708powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 709
e0e9281e
JB
710* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
711
712GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
713and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
714they expand.
715
dd73b9bb
AC
716The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
717invocations in expression, and shows the result.
718
719The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
720macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
721
e0e9281e
JB
722Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
723information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
724your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
725information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
726
2250ee0c
CV
727* Multi-arched targets.
728
6e3ba3b8
JT
729DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
730DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 731NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 732National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
733Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
734Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 735
cd9bfe15 736* New targets.
e33ce519 737
456f8b9d
DB
738Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
739
e33ce519 740
da8ca43d
JT
741* New native configurations
742
743Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 744SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 745MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 746UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 747
cd9bfe15
AC
748* OBSOLETE configurations and files
749
750Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
751been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
752configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
753permanently REMOVED.
754
92eb23c5 755Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 756OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 757IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 758Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 759Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 760Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
761i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
762i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
763i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
764HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
765 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
766 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 767I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 768
db034ac5
AC
769* OBSOLETE languages
770
771CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
772
cd9bfe15
AC
773* REMOVED configurations and files
774
775AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
776A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
777AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
778AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
779AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
780
781testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
782
20f01a46
DH
783* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
784
785This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
786commands. The default is 1024.
787
a5941fbf
MK
788* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
789
790Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
791
89743e04
MS
792* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
793
794These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
795to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
796from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 797
9fb14e79
JB
798* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
799
800The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
801including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
802of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
803
2037aebb
AC
804*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
805
806* New targets.
807
808Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
809
810* Bug fixes
811
812gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
813mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
814Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
815
816gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
817dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
818Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
819
820Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
821Surprisingly enough, it works now.
822By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
823
824i386 hardware watchpoint support:
825avoid misses on second run for some targets.
826By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
827
37057839 828*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 829
1a703748
MS
830* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
831
832This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
833really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
834In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
835target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
836This can be a significant performance improvement on some
837(notably embedded) targets.
838
cefd4ef5
MS
839* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
840
55241689
AC
841This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
842process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
843GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
844hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 845
352ed7b4
MS
846* New command line option
847
848GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
849
850* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
851
852There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
853command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
854a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
855be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
856open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
857issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
858a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
859it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
860GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
861is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
862
fe419ffc
RE
863* Changes in ARM configurations.
864
865Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
866configuration is fully multi-arch.
867
eb7cedd9
MK
868* New native configurations
869
fe419ffc 870ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 871x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 872AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 873Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 874
c9f63e6b
CV
875* New targets
876
877Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
878
9b4ff276
AC
879* OBSOLETE configurations and files
880
881Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
882been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
883configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
884permanently REMOVED.
885
886AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
887A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
888AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
889AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
890AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
891
b4ceaee6 892testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 893
e2caac18
AC
894* REMOVED configurations and files
895
896TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 897WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
898PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
899PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
900PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 901Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
902Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
903 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 904SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 905Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
906Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
907ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 908Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 909
c2a727fa
TT
910* Changes to command line processing
911
912The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
913for the inferior from gdb's command line.
914
467d8519
TT
915* Changes to key bindings
916
917There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
918
7072a954
AC
919*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
920
921Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
922
923Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
924corrupted.
925
926Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
927
928Numerous documentation fixes.
929
930Numerous testsuite fixes.
931
34f47bc4 932*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
933
934* New native configurations
935
936Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
937x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 938MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
939MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
940ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 941s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 942
bf64bfd6
AC
943* New targets
944
def90278 945Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 946CRIS cris-axis
55241689 947UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 948
17e78a56 949* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
950
951x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 952Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
953Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
954 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
955TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
956WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 957Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
958PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
959PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
960PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 961SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
962Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
963ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 964Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 965
17e78a56
AC
966stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
967kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
968
7fcca85b
AC
969Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
970been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
971configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
972permanently REMOVED.
973
a196c81c 974* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
975
976Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
977Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
978Pyramid pyramid-*-*
979ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
980Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 981ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 982
6d6b80e5 983* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 984
6d6b80e5 985GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
986sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
987present.
988
bf64bfd6
AC
989* Other news:
990
e23194cb
EZ
991* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
992
993* The MI enabled by default.
994
995The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
996revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
997engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
998using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
999which is now deprecated.
1000
1001* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1002
1003GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1004main features are supported:
1005
1006 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1007
1008 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1009 extension;
1010
1011 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1012
1013 - a Pascal expression parser.
1014
1015However, some important features are not yet supported.
1016
1017 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1018
1019 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1020
1021 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1022 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1023
1024 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1025
1026 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1027
1028* Changes in completion.
1029
1030Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1031to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1032users expect at the shell prompt.
1033
1034Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1035`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1036program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1037files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1038be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1039considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1040name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1041
1042`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1043
1044* New platform-independent commands:
1045
1046It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1047hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1048documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1049
1050* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1051
d7275149
MK
1052Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1053revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1054many threads as your system allows you to have.
1055
e23194cb
EZ
1056Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1057
d7275149
MK
1058Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1059multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
1060
1061* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
1062
1063Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1064
e23194cb
EZ
1065GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1066debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1067supported.)
1068
1069* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1070
1071Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1072breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1073implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1074put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1075and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1076registers.
1077
1078The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1079debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1080watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1081
1082* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1083
1084New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1085the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1086
1087New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1088display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1089IDT.
1090
1091New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1092from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1093New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1094a given linear address.
1095
1096GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1097program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1098which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1099
1100DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1101
6c56c069
EZ
1102It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1103
e23194cb
EZ
1104* Changes in documentation.
1105
1106All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1107Documentation License.
1108
1109Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1110manual.
1111
1112TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1113
1114Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1115manual.
1116
1117The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1118documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1119hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1120
5d6640b1
AC
1121* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1122
1123The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1124``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1125contents of this file.
1126
1a1d8446
AC
1127* gdba.el deleted
1128
1129GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 1130
9debab2f 1131*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 1132
c63ce875
EZ
1133* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1134
1135Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1136programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1137displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1138greater level of detail.
1139
1140* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1141
1142It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1143bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1144on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1145written.
1146
1147* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1148
1149The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1150necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1151machines ``out of the box''.
1152
1153The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1154possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1155signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1156would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1157interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1158
1159It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1160standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1161even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1162and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1163terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1164
1165The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1166enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1167also works.
1168
1169DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1170GDB.
1171
1172It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1173directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1174times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1175breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1176
ed9a39eb
JM
1177* New native configurations
1178
1179ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 1180PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 1181
7a292a7a
SS
1182* New targets
1183
96baa820 1184Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
1185x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1186PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
1187TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1188
085dd6e6
JM
1189* OBSOLETE configurations
1190
1191Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1192Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 1193Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 1194ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 1195Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 1196
9debab2f
AC
1197Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1198but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1199these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1200be permanently REMOVED.
1201
5330533d
SS
1202* Gould support removed
1203
1204Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1205
bc9e5bbf
AC
1206* New features for SVR4
1207
1208On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1209without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1210load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1211
1212* Many C++ enhancements
1213
1214C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1215in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1216
adf40b2e
JM
1217* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1218
1219A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1220sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1221with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1222``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1223
1224 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1225 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1226
43e526b9
JM
1227* MIPS 64 remote protocol
1228
1229A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1230expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1231instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1232
1233The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1234added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1235
96baa820
JM
1236* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1237
1238The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1239``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1240include ``set remote P-packet''.
1241
11cf8741
JM
1242* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1243
1244The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1245accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1246``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1247
7876dd43
DB
1248* ``apropos'' command added.
1249
1250The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1251documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1252try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1253
bc9e5bbf
AC
1254* New MI interface
1255
1256A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1257interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
1258process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1259"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1260enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
1261
1262 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1263
c906108c
SS
1264*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1265
1266* New native configurations
1267
1268HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1269HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 1270M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
1271
1272* New targets
1273
1274Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1275Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1276Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1277
1278* OBSOLETE configurations
1279
1280Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1281
1282Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1283but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1284these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1285be permanently REMOVED.
1286
1287* ANSI/ISO C
1288
1289As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1290buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1291containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1292use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1293available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1294configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1295information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1296already.
1297
1298* Readline 2.2
1299
1300GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1301
1302* set extension-language
1303
1304You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1305languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1306you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1307 set extension-language .c c++
1308The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1309and their associated languages.
1310
1311* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1312
1313When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1314you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1315PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1316
1317 set processor NAME
1318
1319sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1320following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1321
1322 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1323 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1324 403 IBM PowerPC 403
1325 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1326 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1327 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1328 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1329 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1330 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1331 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1332 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1333
1334At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1335special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1336registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1337only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1338
1339* HP-UX support
1340
1341Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1342more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1343library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1344support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1345for xdb and dbx commands.
1346
1347* Catchpoints
1348
1349HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1350generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1351to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1352
1353This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1354argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1355output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1356
1357* Debugging across forks
1358
1359On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1360in the inferior.
1361
1362* TUI
1363
1364HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1365it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1366configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1367
1368* GDB remote protocol additions
1369
1370A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1371Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1372fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1373allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1374
1375For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1376full 64-bit address. The command
1377
1378 set remoteaddresssize 32
1379
1380can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1381the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1382will be discarded.
1383
1384In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1385command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1386
1387 maint packet heythere
1388
1389sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1390disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1391time.
1392
1393The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1394target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1395downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1396
1397* Tracing can collect general expressions
1398
1399You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1400further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1401doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1402
1403* mask-address variable for Mips
1404
1405For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1406a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1407of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1408
1409* Higher serial baud rates
1410
1411GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1412230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1413to achieve all of these rates.)
1414
1415* i960 simulator
1416
1417The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1418builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1419
1420
1421*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1422
1423* New native configurations
1424
1425Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1426Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1427Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1428PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1429PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1430Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1431Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1432
1433* New targets
1434
1435Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1436Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1437Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1438Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1439MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1440MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1441MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1442Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1443Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1444Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1445NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1446
1447* New debugging protocols
1448
1449ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1450M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1451DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1452PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1453PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1454Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1455
1456* DWARF 2
1457
1458All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1459format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1460information.
1461
1462* Java frontend
1463
1464GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1465only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1466
1467* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1468
1469For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1470loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1471locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1472
1473* Live range splitting
1474
1475GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1476range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1477more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1478
1479* Hurd support
1480
1481GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1482updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1483
1484* ARM Thumb support
1485
1486GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1487instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1488instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1489accordingly.
1490
1491* MIPS16 support
1492
1493GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1494instruction set.
1495
1496* Overlay support
1497
1498GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1499linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1500will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1501control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1502additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1503in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1504
1505* info symbol
1506
1507The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1508the symbol at the specified address.
1509
1510* Trace support
1511
1512The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1513asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1514extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1515includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1516file tracepoint.c for more details.
1517
1518* MIPS simulator
1519
1520Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1521by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1522of most MIPS variants.
1523
1524* Sparc simulator
1525
1526Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1527by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1528Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1529
1530* set architecture
1531
1532For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1533basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1534architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1535the possible architectures.
1536
1537*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1538
1539* New native configurations
1540
1541Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1542M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1543PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1544PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1545PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1546RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1547
1548* New targets
1549
1550ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1551I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1552MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1553MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1554PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1555Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
1556Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1557
1558* PowerPC simulator
1559
1560The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1561contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1562PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1563basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1564performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1565
1566* Solaris 2.5
1567
1568GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1569
1570* Windows 95/NT native
1571
1572GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1573To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1574which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1575Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1576ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1577
1578* dont-repeat command
1579
1580If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1581command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1582useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1583extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1584
1585* Send break instead of ^C
1586
1587The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1588rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1589GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1590
1591* Remote protocol timeout
1592
1593The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1594that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1595to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1596
1597* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1598
1599By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1600loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1601stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1602when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1603in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1604
1605Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1606/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1607automatically on hpux10.
1608
1609* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1610
1611Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1612
1613* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1614
1615When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1616may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1617the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1618every character. The default value is 1050.
1619
1620* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1621
1622If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1623a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1624replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1625details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1626remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1627to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1628
1629* Speedups for remote debugging
1630
1631GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1632the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1633and more efficient S-record downloading.
1634
1635* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1636
1637GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1638Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1639
1640*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1641
1642* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1643
1644The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1645can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1646
1647* Remote targets use caching
1648
1649Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1650remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1651it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1652debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1653off' turns the the data cache off.
1654
1655* Remote targets may have threads
1656
1657The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1658in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1659gdb/remote.c for details.
1660
1661* NetROM support
1662
1663If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1664support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1665acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1666write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1667support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1668another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1669sequence is something like
1670
1671 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1672 load <prog>
1673 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1674
1675* Macintosh host
1676
1677GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1678may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1679it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1680available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1681device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1682directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1683scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1684mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1685
1686* Autoconf
1687
1688GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1689but does simplify configuration and building.
1690
1691* hpux10
1692
1693GDB now supports hpux10.
1694
1695*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1696
1697* New native configurations
1698
1699x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1700x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1701NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1702Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1703
1704* New targets
1705
1706A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1707HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1708CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1709PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1710WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1711
1712* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1713
1714GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1715possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1716filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1717the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1718if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1719
1720* Arguments to user-defined commands
1721
1722User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1723Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1724trivial example:
1725define adder
1726 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1727
1728To execute the command use:
1729adder 1 2 3
1730
1731Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1732Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1733use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1734
1735* New `if' and `while' commands
1736
1737This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1738commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1739expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1740execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1741terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1742`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1743if the expression is zero.
1744
1745* Fortran source language mode
1746
1747GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1748Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1749variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1750with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1751Fortran compilers.
1752
1753* Better HPUX support
1754
1755Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1756running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1757processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1758for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1759that behavior do the following before running the program:
1760
1761 adb -w a.out
1762 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1763 control-d
1764
1765This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1766To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1767
1768 adb -w a.out
1769 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1770 control-d
1771
1772You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1773the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1774external linkage.
1775
1776GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1777HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1778
1779* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1780
1781You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1782commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1783current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1784"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1785associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1786configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1787
1788* New DOS host serial code
1789
1790This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1791no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1792a PC's serial port.
1793
1794*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1795
1796* New "complete" command
1797
1798This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1799were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1800
1801* Trailing space optional in prompt
1802
1803"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1804allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1805
1806* Breakpoint hit counts
1807
1808"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1809has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1810can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1811to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1812less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1813that breakpoint.
1814
1815* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1816
1817"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1818an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1819arrays actually contain only short strings.
1820
1821* Shared library breakpoints
1822
1823In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1824breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1825
1826* Hardware watchpoints
1827
1828There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1829targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1830
55241689 1831Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1832
1833* Annotations
1834
1835Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1836and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1837
1838* Improved Irix 5 support
1839
1840GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1841
1842* Improved HPPA support
1843
1844GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1845
1846* New native configurations
1847
1848Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1849HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1850Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1851RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1852
1853* New targets
1854
1855OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1856MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1857Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1858
1859* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1860
1861There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1862This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1863
1864* Fixes
1865
1866As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1867and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1868
1869*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1870
1871* Irix 5 is now supported
1872
1873* HPPA support
1874
1875GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1876to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1877GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1878of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1879can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1880
1881
1882*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1883
1884* User visible changes:
1885
1886* Remote Debugging
1887
1888The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1889target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1890debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1891integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1892debugging info for the mips target).
1893
1894* DEC Alpha native support
1895
1896GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1897debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1898work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1899Alpha-specific notes.
1900
1901* Preliminary thread implementation
1902
1903GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1904
1905* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1906
1907This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1908to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1909for details).
1910
1911* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1912
1913This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1914mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1915call methods, ...etc.
1916
1917*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1918
1919 * User visible changes:
1920
1921Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1922supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1923other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1924somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1925
1926Filename completion now works.
1927
1928When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1929arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1930addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1931
1932All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1933vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1934should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1935your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1936to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1937
1938 * DEC alpha support
1939
1940This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1941cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1942
1943
1944*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1945
1946 * Testsuite
1947
1948This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1949The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1950via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1951
1952 * C++ demangling
1953
1954'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1955emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1956Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1957disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1958use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1959
1960 * Simulators
1961
1962GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1963So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1964Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1965
1966 * New targets supported
1967
1968H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1969H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1970SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1971Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1972IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1973
1974Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1975version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1976GO32 memory extender.
1977
1978 * New remote protocols
1979
1980MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1981
1982 * New source languages supported
1983
1984This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1985used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1986into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1987
1988
1989*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1990
1991 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1992
1993GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1994version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1995University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1996compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1997format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1998(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1999
2000Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2001
2002 * Faster and better demangling
2003
2004We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2005demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2006character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2007only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2008This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2009increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2010symbol lookups.
2011
2012`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2013from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2014compiler does not actually implement.
2015
2016 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2017
2018In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2019inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2020recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2021very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2022The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2023circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2024fix.
2025
2026The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2027release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2028
2029 * Improved configure script
2030
2031The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2032you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2033host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2034done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2035
2036We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2037version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2038`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2039The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2040only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2041We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2042
2043 * Documentation improvements
2044
2045There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2046produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2047before submitting changes.
2048
2049The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2050M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2051`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2052you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2053a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2054
2055*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2056We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2057been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2058or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2059`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2060around this problem.
2061
2062 * New features
2063
2064GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2065the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2066`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2067the target program.
2068
2069The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2070how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2071
2072 * New native hosts supported
2073
2074HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2075386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2076
2077 * New targets supported
2078
2079AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2080
2081 * New file formats supported
2082
2083BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2084HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2085
2086 * Major bug fixes
2087
2088Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2089
2090We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2091printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2092
2093We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2094for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2095release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2096
2097You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2098will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2099
2100We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2101for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2102especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2103libraries.
2104
2105The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2106information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2107command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2108any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2109when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2110
2111 * Internal improvements
2112
2113GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2114debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2115
2116GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2117Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2118symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2119contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2120shared code that handles any of them.
2121
2122 * New command line options
2123
2124We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2125
2126 * Mmalloc licensing
2127
2128The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2129General Public License.
2130
2131*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2132
2133 * Host/native/target split
2134
2135GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2136hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2137target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2138local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2139ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2140
2141The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2142GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2143is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2144code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2145any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2146built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2147handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2148
2149GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2150It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2151plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2152
2153 * New hosts supported
2154
2155HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2156386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2157386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2158
2159 * New targets supported
2160
2161Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
216268030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2163
2164 * New native hosts supported
2165
2166386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2167 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2168386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2169
2170 * New file formats supported
2171
2172BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2173supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2174format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2175
2176 * New commands
2177
2178`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2179`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2180These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2181
2182`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2183
2184You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2185scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2186prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2187executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2188
2189 * C++ improvements
2190
2191We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2192info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2193symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2194
2195Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2196
2197 * Major bug fixes
2198
2199The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2200fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2201by the compiler.
2202
2203We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2204support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2205
2206John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2207slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2208that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2209purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2210the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2211mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2212
2213Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2214about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2215completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2216we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2217
2218 * AMD 29k support
2219
2220A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2221specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2222calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2223usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2224in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2225
2226We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2227Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2228of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2229resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2230
2231 * Remote interfaces
2232
2233We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2234with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2235message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2236This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2237needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2238breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2239each instruction being stepped through.
2240
2241The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2242registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2243
2244There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2245find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2246Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2247processor with a serial port.
2248
2249 * Configuration
2250
2251Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2252`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2253supported, and what files each one uses.
2254
2255 * Library changes
2256
2257There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2258disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2259Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2260disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2261
2262The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2263Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2264can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2265grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2266
2267 * Documentation
2268
2269The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2270reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2271as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2272encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2273system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2274bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2275
2276And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2277
2278
2279*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2280
2281 * Better support for C++ function names
2282
2283GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2284names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2285(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2286single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2287Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2288
2289GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2290the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2291You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2292lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2293for the list of formats.
2294
2295 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2296
2297Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2298C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2299directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2300can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2301usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2302about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2303this problem.)
2304
2305 * New 'maintenance' command
2306
2307All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2308the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2309can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2310
2311 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2312 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2313 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2314 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2315 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2316 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2317
2318The following commands are new:
2319
2320 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2321 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2322 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2323
2324 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2325
2326We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2327(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2328be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2329read after argv processing.
2330
2331 * New hosts supported
2332
2333Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2334
55241689 2335GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
2336
2337We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2338is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2339for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2340masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2341fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2342It costs extra.
2343
2344 * New targets supported
2345
2346Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2347
2348 * More smarts about finding #include files
2349
2350GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2351all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2352greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2353especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2354the one that contains your sources.
2355
2356We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2357breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2358try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2359
2360 * Interesting infernals change
2361
2362GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2363section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2364target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2365stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2366
2367 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2368
2369There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2370 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2371 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2372
2373See the ChangeLog for details.
2374
2375*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2376
2377 * New machines supported (host and target)
2378
2379IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2380
2381SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2382
2383 * New malloc package
2384
2385GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2386Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2387capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2388This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2389pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2390more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2391
2392 * info proc
2393
2394The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2395'help info proc' for details.
2396
2397 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2398
2399The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2400Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2401possible.
2402
2403 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2404
2405Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2406support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2407conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2408environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2409that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2410in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2411
2412 * Cross byte order fixes
2413
2414Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2415targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2416
2417 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2418
2419If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2420system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2421`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2422program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2423called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2424Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2425and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2426the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2427option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2428starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2429
2430You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2431the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2432information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2433slower, but makes future operations faster.
2434
2435The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2436build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2437A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2438use is:
2439
2440 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2441
2442The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2443It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2444shared across multiple host platforms.
2445
2446 * longjmp() handling
2447
2448GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2449siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2450all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2451platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2452
2453 * Solaris 2.0
2454
2455Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2456this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2457reading symbols.
2458
2459 * Bug fixes
2460
2461As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2462People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2463crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2464
2465*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2466
2467 * New machines supported (host and target)
2468
2469SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2470 (except core files)
2471BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2472Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2473
2474 * New machines supported (target)
2475
2476AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2477
2478 * C++ support
2479
2480GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2481The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2482per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2483
2484GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2485`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2486extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2487good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2488will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2489released.
2490
2491 * New features for SVR4
2492
2493GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2494shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2495only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2496
2497The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2498on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2499it prints the address mappings of the process.
2500
2501If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2502bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2503
2504 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2505
2506Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2507now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2508skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2509make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2510same code linked statically.
2511
2512 * New Getopt
2513
2514GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2515version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2516continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2517Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2518added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2519future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2520
2521 * Bugs fixed
2522
2523The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2524Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2525See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2526
2527
2528*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2529
2530 * New machines supported (host and target)
2531
2532Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2533NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2534Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2535
2536 * Almost SCO Unix support
2537
2538We had hoped to support:
2539SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2540(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2541that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2542about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2543
2544 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2545
2546GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2547debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2548is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2549send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2550reqired (if any).
2551
2552 * New Readline
2553
2554GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2555is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2556required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2557
2558 * Bugs fixed
2559
2560The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2561Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2562See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2563
2564 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2565
2566GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2567supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2568symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2569
2570Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2571mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2572debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2573mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2574version 2.
2575
2576Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2577really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2578line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2579variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2580situation somewhat.
2581
2582When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2583However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2584methods.
2585
2586We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2587DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2588encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2589
2590
2591*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2592
2593 * Improved configuration
2594
2595Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2596Porting BFD is simpler.
2597
2598 * Stepping improved
2599
2600The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2601of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2602in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2603function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2604
2605 * Bug fixing
2606
2607Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2608
2609 * New host supported (not target)
2610
2611Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2612
2613
2614*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2615
2616 * Multiple source language support
2617
2618GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2619It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2620and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2621language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2622You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2623`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2624
2625 * GDB and Modula-2
2626
2627GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2628currently under development at the State University of New York at
2629Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2630continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2631
2632Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2633debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2634symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2635
2636There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2637in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2638
2639 * set write on/off
2640
2641GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2642a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2643the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2644by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2645effect immediately.
2646
2647 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2648
2649When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2650shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2651The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2652examining core files.
2653
2654 * set listsize
2655
2656You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2657The default is 10.
2658
2659 * New machines supported (host and target)
2660
2661SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2662Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2663Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2664
2665 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2666
2667IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2668
2669 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2670
2671AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2672AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2673Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2674
2675 * New remote interfaces
2676
2677AMD 29000 Adapt
2678AMD 29000 Minimon
2679
2680
2681*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2682
2683 * New Facilities
2684
2685Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2686
2687Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2688target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2689is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2690remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2691remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2692also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2693using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2694stub on the target system.
2695
2696New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2697
2698GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2699library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2700object file types such as a.out and coff.
2701
2702There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2703refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2704
2705
2706 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2707
2708All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2709by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2710
2711For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2712``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2713Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2714
2715What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2716print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2717will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2718all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2719
2720confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2721 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2722 it is already running. Default is ON.
2723
2724editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2725 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2726 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2727 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2728 Default is ON.
2729
2730history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2731 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2732 or the value of the environment variable
2733 GDBHISTFILE.
2734
2735history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2736 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2737 HISTSIZE.
2738
2739history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2740 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2741 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2742
2743history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2744 history expansion will be performed on
2745 command line input. The default is OFF.
2746
2747radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2748 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2749 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2750
2751height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2752 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2753 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2754 variable TERM.
2755
2756width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2757 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2758 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2759 variable TERM.
2760
2761Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2762``set width'' instead.
2763
2764print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2765 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2766 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2767 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2768
2769print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2770 is OFF.
2771
2772print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2773 "raw" form if off.
2774
2775print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2776 like instructions.
2777
2778print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2779
2780
2781 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2782
2783The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2784new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2785are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2786window.
2787
2788
2789 * Support for Shared Libraries
2790
2791GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2792Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2793before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2794happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2795At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2796from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2797shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2798It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2799
2800sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2801 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2802 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2803
2804info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2805
2806
2807 * Watchpoints
2808
2809A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2810expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2811tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2812quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2813problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2814more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2815
2816watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2817
2818info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2819
2820delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2821disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2822enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2823
2824
2825 * C++ multiple inheritance
2826
2827When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2828for C++ programs.
2829
2830 * C++ exception handling
2831
2832Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2833ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2834the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2835handler's context).
2836
2837catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2838 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2839 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2840
2841info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2842 current stack frame.
2843
2844
2845 * Minor command changes
2846
2847The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2848command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2849is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2850
2851The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2852at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2853frames without printing.
2854
2855 * New directory command
2856
2857'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2858The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2859about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2860with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2861find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2862
2863 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2864
2865For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2866for more details.
2867
2868GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2869two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2870Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2871where the program that you are debugging will run.