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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 5.3:
5
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6* d10v `regs' command deprecated
7
8The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
9registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
10
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11* Profiling support
12
13A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
14be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
15session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
16"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
17data, for more informative profiling results.
18
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19* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
20
21The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
22option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 23"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
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24
25Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
26removed.
27
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28Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
29Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
30Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
31 in a subsequent -var-update.
32
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33* OBSOLETE configurations and files
34
35Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
36been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
37configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
38permanently REMOVED.
39
05d57f6f 40Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
8b0e5691 41Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 42Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 43H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
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44HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
45HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
46HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 47PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
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48Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
49 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
50 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
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51Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
52Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 53
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54* REMOVED configurations and files
55
56V850EA ISA
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57Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
58IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
59i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
60i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
61i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
62HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
63 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
64 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
65Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
66Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
67Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
68OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
69I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 70
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71* MIPS $fp behavior changed
72
73The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
74the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
75context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
76address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
77The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
78
299ffc64 79*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 80
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81* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
82
83When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
84`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
85in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
86library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
87shared libs like mad''.
88
b9d14705 89* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 90
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91Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
92the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
93arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
94powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 95
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96* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
97
98GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
99and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
100they expand.
101
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102The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
103invocations in expression, and shows the result.
104
105The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
106macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
107
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108Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
109information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
110your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
111information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
112
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113* Multi-arched targets.
114
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115DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
116DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 117NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 118National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
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119Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
120Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 121
cd9bfe15 122* New targets.
e33ce519 123
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124Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
125
e33ce519 126
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127* New native configurations
128
129Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 130SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 131MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 132UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 133
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134* OBSOLETE configurations and files
135
136Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
137been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
138configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
139permanently REMOVED.
140
92eb23c5 141Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 142OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 143IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 144Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 145Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 146Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
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147i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
148i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
149i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
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150HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
151 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
152 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 153I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 154
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155* OBSOLETE languages
156
157CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
158
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159* REMOVED configurations and files
160
161AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
162A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
163AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
164AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
165AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
166
167testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
168
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169* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
170
171This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
172commands. The default is 1024.
173
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174* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
175
176Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
177
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178* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
179
180These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
181to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
182from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 183
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184* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
185
186The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
187including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
188of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
189
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190*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
191
192* New targets.
193
194Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
195
196* Bug fixes
197
198gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
199mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
200Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
201
202gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
203dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
204Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
205
206Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
207Surprisingly enough, it works now.
208By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
209
210i386 hardware watchpoint support:
211avoid misses on second run for some targets.
212By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
213
37057839 214*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 215
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216* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
217
218This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
219really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
220In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
221target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
222This can be a significant performance improvement on some
223(notably embedded) targets.
224
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225* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
226
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227This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
228process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
229GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
230hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 231
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232* New command line option
233
234GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
235
236* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
237
238There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
239command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
240a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
241be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
242open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
243issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
244a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
245it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
246GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
247is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
248
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249* Changes in ARM configurations.
250
251Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
252configuration is fully multi-arch.
253
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254* New native configurations
255
fe419ffc 256ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 257x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 258AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 259Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 260
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261* New targets
262
263Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
264
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265* OBSOLETE configurations and files
266
267Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
268been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
269configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
270permanently REMOVED.
271
272AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
273A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
274AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
275AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
276AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
277
b4ceaee6 278testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 279
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280* REMOVED configurations and files
281
282TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 283WDC 65816 w65-*-*
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284PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
285PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
286PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 287Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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288Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
289 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 290SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 291Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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292Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
293ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 294Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 295
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296* Changes to command line processing
297
298The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
299for the inferior from gdb's command line.
300
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301* Changes to key bindings
302
303There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
304
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305*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
306
307Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
308
309Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
310corrupted.
311
312Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
313
314Numerous documentation fixes.
315
316Numerous testsuite fixes.
317
34f47bc4 318*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
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319
320* New native configurations
321
322Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
323x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 324MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
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325MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
326ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 327s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 328
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329* New targets
330
def90278 331Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 332CRIS cris-axis
55241689 333UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 334
17e78a56 335* OBSOLETE configurations and files
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336
337x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 338Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
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339Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
340 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
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341TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
342WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 343Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
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344PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
345PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
346PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 347SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
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348Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
349ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 350Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 351
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352stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
353kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
354
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355Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
356been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
357configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
358permanently REMOVED.
359
a196c81c 360* REMOVED configurations and files
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361
362Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
363Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
364Pyramid pyramid-*-*
365ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
366Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 367ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 368
6d6b80e5 369* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 370
6d6b80e5 371GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
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372sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
373present.
374
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375* Other news:
376
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377* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
378
379* The MI enabled by default.
380
381The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
382revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
383engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
384using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
385which is now deprecated.
386
387* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
388
389GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
390main features are supported:
391
392 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
393
394 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
395 extension;
396
397 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
398
399 - a Pascal expression parser.
400
401However, some important features are not yet supported.
402
403 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
404
405 - there are some problems with boolean types;
406
407 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
408 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
409
410 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
411
412 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
413
414* Changes in completion.
415
416Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
417to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
418users expect at the shell prompt.
419
420Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
421`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
422program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
423files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
424be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
425considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
426name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
427
428`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
429
430* New platform-independent commands:
431
432It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
433hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
434documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
435
436* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
437
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438Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
439revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
440many threads as your system allows you to have.
441
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442Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
443
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444Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
445multi-threaded programs though.
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446
447* Changes in MIPS configurations.
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448
449Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
450
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451GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
452debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
453supported.)
454
455* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
456
457Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
458breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
459implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
460put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
461and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
462registers.
463
464The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
465debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
466watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
467
468* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
469
470New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
471the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
472
473New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
474display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
475IDT.
476
477New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
478from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
479New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
480a given linear address.
481
482GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
483program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
484which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
485
486DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
487
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488It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
489
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490* Changes in documentation.
491
492All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
493Documentation License.
494
495Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
496manual.
497
498TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
499
500Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
501manual.
502
503The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
504documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
505hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
506
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507* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
508
509The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
510``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
511contents of this file.
512
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513* gdba.el deleted
514
515GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 516
9debab2f 517*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 518
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519* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
520
521Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
522programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
523displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
524greater level of detail.
525
526* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
527
528It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
529bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
530on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
531written.
532
533* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
534
535The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
536necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
537machines ``out of the box''.
538
539The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
540possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
541signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
542would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
543interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
544
545It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
546standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
547even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
548and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
549terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
550
551The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
552enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
553also works.
554
555DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
556GDB.
557
558It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
559directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
560times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
561breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
562
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563* New native configurations
564
565ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 566PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 567
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568* New targets
569
96baa820 570Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
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571x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
572PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
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573TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
574
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575* OBSOLETE configurations
576
577Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
578Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 579Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 580ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 581Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 582
9debab2f
AC
583Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
584but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
585these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
586be permanently REMOVED.
587
5330533d
SS
588* Gould support removed
589
590Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
591
bc9e5bbf
AC
592* New features for SVR4
593
594On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
595without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
596load symbols from the running process's executable file.
597
598* Many C++ enhancements
599
600C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
601in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
602
adf40b2e
JM
603* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
604
605A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
606sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
607with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
608``|<program> <args>'' vis:
609
610 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
611 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
612
43e526b9
JM
613* MIPS 64 remote protocol
614
615A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
616expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
617instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
618
619The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
620added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
621
96baa820
JM
622* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
623
624The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
625``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
626include ``set remote P-packet''.
627
11cf8741
JM
628* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
629
630The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
631accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
632``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
633
7876dd43
DB
634* ``apropos'' command added.
635
636The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
637documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
638try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
639
bc9e5bbf
AC
640* New MI interface
641
642A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
643interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
644process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
645"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
646enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
647
648 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
649
c906108c
SS
650*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
651
652* New native configurations
653
654HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
655HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 656M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
657
658* New targets
659
660Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
661Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
662Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
663
664* OBSOLETE configurations
665
666Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
667
668Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
669but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
670these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
671be permanently REMOVED.
672
673* ANSI/ISO C
674
675As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
676buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
677containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
678use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
679available. If this is not true, please report the affected
680configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
681information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
682already.
683
684* Readline 2.2
685
686GDB now uses readline 2.2.
687
688* set extension-language
689
690You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
691languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
692you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
693 set extension-language .c c++
694The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
695and their associated languages.
696
697* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
698
699When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
700you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
701PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
702
703 set processor NAME
704
705sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
706following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
707
708 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
709 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
710 403 IBM PowerPC 403
711 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
712 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
713 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
714 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
715 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
716 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
717 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
718 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
719
720At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
721special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
722registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
723only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
724
725* HP-UX support
726
727Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
728more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
729library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
730support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
731for xdb and dbx commands.
732
733* Catchpoints
734
735HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
736generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
737to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
738
739This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
740argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
741output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
742
743* Debugging across forks
744
745On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
746in the inferior.
747
748* TUI
749
750HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
751it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
752configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
753
754* GDB remote protocol additions
755
756A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
757Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
758fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
759allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
760
761For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
762full 64-bit address. The command
763
764 set remoteaddresssize 32
765
766can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
767the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
768will be discarded.
769
770In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
771command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
772
773 maint packet heythere
774
775sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
776disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
777time.
778
779The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
780target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
781downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
782
783* Tracing can collect general expressions
784
785You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
786further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
787doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
788
789* mask-address variable for Mips
790
791For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
792a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
793of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
794
795* Higher serial baud rates
796
797GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
798230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
799to achieve all of these rates.)
800
801* i960 simulator
802
803The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
804builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
805
806
807*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
808
809* New native configurations
810
811Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
812Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
813Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
814PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
815PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
816Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
817Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
818
819* New targets
820
821Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
822Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
823Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
824Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
825MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
826MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
827MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
828Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
829Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
830Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
831NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
832
833* New debugging protocols
834
835ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
836M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
837DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
838PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
839PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
840Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
841
842* DWARF 2
843
844All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
845format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
846information.
847
848* Java frontend
849
850GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
851only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
852
853* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
854
855For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
856loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
857locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
858
859* Live range splitting
860
861GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
862range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
863more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
864
865* Hurd support
866
867GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
868updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
869
870* ARM Thumb support
871
872GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
873instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
874instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
875accordingly.
876
877* MIPS16 support
878
879GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
880instruction set.
881
882* Overlay support
883
884GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
885linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
886will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
887control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
888additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
889in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
890
891* info symbol
892
893The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
894the symbol at the specified address.
895
896* Trace support
897
898The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
899asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
900extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
901includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
902file tracepoint.c for more details.
903
904* MIPS simulator
905
906Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
907by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
908of most MIPS variants.
909
910* Sparc simulator
911
912Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
913by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
914Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
915
916* set architecture
917
918For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
919basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
920architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
921the possible architectures.
922
923*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
924
925* New native configurations
926
927Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
928M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
929PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
930PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
931PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
932RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
933
934* New targets
935
936ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
937I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
938MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
939MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
940PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
941Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
942Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
943
944* PowerPC simulator
945
946The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
947contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
948PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
949basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
950performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
951
952* Solaris 2.5
953
954GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
955
956* Windows 95/NT native
957
958GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
959To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
960which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
961Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
962ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
963
964* dont-repeat command
965
966If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
967command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
968useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
969extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
970
971* Send break instead of ^C
972
973The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
974rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
975GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
976
977* Remote protocol timeout
978
979The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
980that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
981to read from the target. The default value is 2.
982
983* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
984
985By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
986loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
987stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
988when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
989in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
990
991Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
992/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
993automatically on hpux10.
994
995* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
996
997Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
998
999* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1000
1001When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1002may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1003the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1004every character. The default value is 1050.
1005
1006* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1007
1008If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1009a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1010replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1011details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1012remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1013to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1014
1015* Speedups for remote debugging
1016
1017GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1018the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1019and more efficient S-record downloading.
1020
1021* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1022
1023GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1024Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1025
1026*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1027
1028* Psymtabs for XCOFF
1029
1030The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1031can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1032
1033* Remote targets use caching
1034
1035Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1036remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1037it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1038debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1039off' turns the the data cache off.
1040
1041* Remote targets may have threads
1042
1043The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1044in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1045gdb/remote.c for details.
1046
1047* NetROM support
1048
1049If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1050support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1051acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1052write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1053support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1054another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1055sequence is something like
1056
1057 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1058 load <prog>
1059 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1060
1061* Macintosh host
1062
1063GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1064may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1065it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1066available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1067device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1068directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1069scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1070mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1071
1072* Autoconf
1073
1074GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1075but does simplify configuration and building.
1076
1077* hpux10
1078
1079GDB now supports hpux10.
1080
1081*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1082
1083* New native configurations
1084
1085x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1086x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1087NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1088Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1089
1090* New targets
1091
1092A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1093HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1094CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1095PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1096WDC 65816 w65-*-*
1097
1098* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1099
1100GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1101possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1102filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1103the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1104if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1105
1106* Arguments to user-defined commands
1107
1108User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1109Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1110trivial example:
1111define adder
1112 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1113
1114To execute the command use:
1115adder 1 2 3
1116
1117Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1118Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1119use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1120
1121* New `if' and `while' commands
1122
1123This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1124commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1125expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1126execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1127terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1128`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1129if the expression is zero.
1130
1131* Fortran source language mode
1132
1133GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1134Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1135variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1136with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1137Fortran compilers.
1138
1139* Better HPUX support
1140
1141Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1142running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1143processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1144for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1145that behavior do the following before running the program:
1146
1147 adb -w a.out
1148 __dld_flags?W 0x5
1149 control-d
1150
1151This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1152To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1153
1154 adb -w a.out
1155 __dld_flags?W 0x4
1156 control-d
1157
1158You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1159the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1160external linkage.
1161
1162GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1163HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1164
1165* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1166
1167You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1168commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1169current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1170"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1171associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1172configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1173
1174* New DOS host serial code
1175
1176This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1177no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1178a PC's serial port.
1179
1180*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1181
1182* New "complete" command
1183
1184This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1185were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1186
1187* Trailing space optional in prompt
1188
1189"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1190allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1191
1192* Breakpoint hit counts
1193
1194"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1195has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1196can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1197to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1198less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1199that breakpoint.
1200
1201* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1202
1203"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1204an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1205arrays actually contain only short strings.
1206
1207* Shared library breakpoints
1208
1209In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1210breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1211
1212* Hardware watchpoints
1213
1214There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1215targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1216
55241689 1217Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
1218
1219* Annotations
1220
1221Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1222and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1223
1224* Improved Irix 5 support
1225
1226GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1227
1228* Improved HPPA support
1229
1230GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1231
1232* New native configurations
1233
1234Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1235HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1236Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1237RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1238
1239* New targets
1240
1241OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1242MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1243Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
1244
1245* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1246
1247There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1248This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1249
1250* Fixes
1251
1252As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1253and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1254
1255*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1256
1257* Irix 5 is now supported
1258
1259* HPPA support
1260
1261GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1262to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1263GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1264of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1265can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1266
1267
1268*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1269
1270* User visible changes:
1271
1272* Remote Debugging
1273
1274The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1275target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1276debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1277integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1278debugging info for the mips target).
1279
1280* DEC Alpha native support
1281
1282GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1283debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1284work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1285Alpha-specific notes.
1286
1287* Preliminary thread implementation
1288
1289GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1290
1291* LynxOS native and target support for 386
1292
1293This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1294to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1295for details).
1296
1297* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1298
1299This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1300mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1301call methods, ...etc.
1302
1303*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1304
1305 * User visible changes:
1306
1307Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1308supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1309other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1310somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1311
1312Filename completion now works.
1313
1314When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1315arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1316addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1317
1318All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1319vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1320should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1321your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1322to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1323
1324 * DEC alpha support
1325
1326This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1327cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1328
1329
1330*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1331
1332 * Testsuite
1333
1334This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1335The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1336via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1337
1338 * C++ demangling
1339
1340'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1341emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1342Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1343disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1344use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1345
1346 * Simulators
1347
1348GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1349So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1350Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1351
1352 * New targets supported
1353
1354H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1355H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1356SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1357Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1358IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1359
1360Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1361version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1362GO32 memory extender.
1363
1364 * New remote protocols
1365
1366MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1367
1368 * New source languages supported
1369
1370This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1371used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1372into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1373
1374
1375*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1376
1377 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1378
1379GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1380version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1381University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1382compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1383format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1384(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1385
1386Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1387
1388 * Faster and better demangling
1389
1390We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1391demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1392character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1393only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1394This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1395increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1396symbol lookups.
1397
1398`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1399from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1400compiler does not actually implement.
1401
1402 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1403
1404In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1405inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1406recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1407very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1408The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1409circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1410fix.
1411
1412The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1413release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1414
1415 * Improved configure script
1416
1417The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1418you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1419host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1420done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1421
1422We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1423version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1424`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1425The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1426only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1427We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1428
1429 * Documentation improvements
1430
1431There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1432produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1433before submitting changes.
1434
1435The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1436M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1437`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1438you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1439a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1440
1441*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1442We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1443been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1444or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1445`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1446around this problem.
1447
1448 * New features
1449
1450GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1451the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1452`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1453the target program.
1454
1455The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1456how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1457
1458 * New native hosts supported
1459
1460HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1461386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1462
1463 * New targets supported
1464
1465AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1466
1467 * New file formats supported
1468
1469BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1470HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1471
1472 * Major bug fixes
1473
1474Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1475
1476We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1477printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1478
1479We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1480for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1481release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1482
1483You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1484will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1485
1486We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1487for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1488especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1489libraries.
1490
1491The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1492information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1493command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1494any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1495when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1496
1497 * Internal improvements
1498
1499GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1500debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1501
1502GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1503Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1504symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1505contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1506shared code that handles any of them.
1507
1508 * New command line options
1509
1510We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1511
1512 * Mmalloc licensing
1513
1514The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1515General Public License.
1516
1517*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1518
1519 * Host/native/target split
1520
1521GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1522hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1523target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1524local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1525ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1526
1527The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1528GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1529is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1530code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1531any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1532built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1533handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1534
1535GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1536It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1537plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1538
1539 * New hosts supported
1540
1541HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1542386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1543386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1544
1545 * New targets supported
1546
1547Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
154868030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1549
1550 * New native hosts supported
1551
1552386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1553 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1554386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1555
1556 * New file formats supported
1557
1558BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1559supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1560format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1561
1562 * New commands
1563
1564`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1565`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1566These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1567
1568`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1569
1570You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1571scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1572prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1573executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1574
1575 * C++ improvements
1576
1577We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1578info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1579symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1580
1581Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1582
1583 * Major bug fixes
1584
1585The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1586fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1587by the compiler.
1588
1589We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1590support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1591
1592John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1593slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1594that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1595purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1596the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1597mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1598
1599Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1600about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1601completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1602we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1603
1604 * AMD 29k support
1605
1606A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1607specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1608calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1609usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1610in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1611
1612We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1613Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1614of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1615resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1616
1617 * Remote interfaces
1618
1619We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1620with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1621message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1622This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1623needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1624breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1625each instruction being stepped through.
1626
1627The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1628registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1629
1630There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1631find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1632Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1633processor with a serial port.
1634
1635 * Configuration
1636
1637Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1638`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1639supported, and what files each one uses.
1640
1641 * Library changes
1642
1643There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1644disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1645Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1646disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1647
1648The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1649Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1650can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1651grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1652
1653 * Documentation
1654
1655The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1656reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1657as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1658encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1659system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1660bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1661
1662And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1663
1664
1665*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1666
1667 * Better support for C++ function names
1668
1669GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1670names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1671(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1672single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1673Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1674
1675GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1676the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1677You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1678lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1679for the list of formats.
1680
1681 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1682
1683Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1684C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1685directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1686can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1687usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1688about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1689this problem.)
1690
1691 * New 'maintenance' command
1692
1693All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1694the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1695can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1696
1697 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1698 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1699 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1700 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1701 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1702 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1703
1704The following commands are new:
1705
1706 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1707 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1708 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1709
1710 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1711
1712We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1713(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1714be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1715read after argv processing.
1716
1717 * New hosts supported
1718
1719Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1720
55241689 1721GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
1722
1723We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1724is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1725for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1726masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1727fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1728It costs extra.
1729
1730 * New targets supported
1731
1732Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1733
1734 * More smarts about finding #include files
1735
1736GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1737all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1738greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1739especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1740the one that contains your sources.
1741
1742We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1743breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1744try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1745
1746 * Interesting infernals change
1747
1748GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1749section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1750target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1751stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1752
1753 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1754
1755There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1756 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1757 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1758
1759See the ChangeLog for details.
1760
1761*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1762
1763 * New machines supported (host and target)
1764
1765IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1766
1767SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1768
1769 * New malloc package
1770
1771GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1772Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1773capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1774This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1775pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1776more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1777
1778 * info proc
1779
1780The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1781'help info proc' for details.
1782
1783 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1784
1785The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1786Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1787possible.
1788
1789 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1790
1791Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1792support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1793conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1794environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1795that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1796in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1797
1798 * Cross byte order fixes
1799
1800Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1801targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1802
1803 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1804
1805If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1806system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1807`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1808program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1809called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1810Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1811and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1812the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1813option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1814starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1815
1816You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1817the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1818information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1819slower, but makes future operations faster.
1820
1821The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1822build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1823A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1824use is:
1825
1826 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1827
1828The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1829It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1830shared across multiple host platforms.
1831
1832 * longjmp() handling
1833
1834GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1835siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1836all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1837platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1838
1839 * Solaris 2.0
1840
1841Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1842this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1843reading symbols.
1844
1845 * Bug fixes
1846
1847As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1848People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1849crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1850
1851*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1852
1853 * New machines supported (host and target)
1854
1855SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1856 (except core files)
1857BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1858Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1859
1860 * New machines supported (target)
1861
1862AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1863
1864 * C++ support
1865
1866GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1867The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1868per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1869
1870GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1871`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1872extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1873good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1874will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1875released.
1876
1877 * New features for SVR4
1878
1879GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1880shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1881only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1882
1883The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1884on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1885it prints the address mappings of the process.
1886
1887If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1888bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1889
1890 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1891
1892Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1893now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1894skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1895make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1896same code linked statically.
1897
1898 * New Getopt
1899
1900GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1901version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1902continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1903Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1904added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1905future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1906
1907 * Bugs fixed
1908
1909The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1910Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1911See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1912
1913
1914*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1915
1916 * New machines supported (host and target)
1917
1918Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1919NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1920Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1921
1922 * Almost SCO Unix support
1923
1924We had hoped to support:
1925SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1926(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1927that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1928about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1929
1930 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1931
1932GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1933debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1934is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1935send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1936reqired (if any).
1937
1938 * New Readline
1939
1940GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1941is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1942required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1943
1944 * Bugs fixed
1945
1946The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1947Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1948See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1949
1950 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1951
1952GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1953supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1954symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1955
1956Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1957mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1958debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1959mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1960version 2.
1961
1962Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1963really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1964line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1965variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1966situation somewhat.
1967
1968When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1969However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1970methods.
1971
1972We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1973DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1974encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1975
1976
1977*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1978
1979 * Improved configuration
1980
1981Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1982Porting BFD is simpler.
1983
1984 * Stepping improved
1985
1986The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1987of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1988in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1989function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1990
1991 * Bug fixing
1992
1993Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1994
1995 * New host supported (not target)
1996
1997Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1998
1999
2000*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2001
2002 * Multiple source language support
2003
2004GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2005It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2006and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2007language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2008You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2009`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2010
2011 * GDB and Modula-2
2012
2013GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2014currently under development at the State University of New York at
2015Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2016continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2017
2018Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2019debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2020symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2021
2022There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2023in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2024
2025 * set write on/off
2026
2027GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2028a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2029the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2030by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2031effect immediately.
2032
2033 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2034
2035When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2036shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2037The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2038examining core files.
2039
2040 * set listsize
2041
2042You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2043The default is 10.
2044
2045 * New machines supported (host and target)
2046
2047SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2048Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2049Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2050
2051 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2052
2053IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2054
2055 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2056
2057AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2058AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2059Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2060
2061 * New remote interfaces
2062
2063AMD 29000 Adapt
2064AMD 29000 Minimon
2065
2066
2067*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2068
2069 * New Facilities
2070
2071Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2072
2073Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2074target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2075is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2076remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2077remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2078also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2079using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2080stub on the target system.
2081
2082New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2083
2084GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2085library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2086object file types such as a.out and coff.
2087
2088There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2089refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2090
2091
2092 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2093
2094All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2095by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2096
2097For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2098``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2099Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2100
2101What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2102print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2103will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2104all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2105
2106confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2107 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2108 it is already running. Default is ON.
2109
2110editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2111 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2112 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2113 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2114 Default is ON.
2115
2116history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2117 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2118 or the value of the environment variable
2119 GDBHISTFILE.
2120
2121history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2122 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2123 HISTSIZE.
2124
2125history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2126 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2127 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2128
2129history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2130 history expansion will be performed on
2131 command line input. The default is OFF.
2132
2133radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2134 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2135 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2136
2137height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2138 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2139 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2140 variable TERM.
2141
2142width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2143 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2144 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2145 variable TERM.
2146
2147Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2148``set width'' instead.
2149
2150print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2151 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2152 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2153 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2154
2155print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2156 is OFF.
2157
2158print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2159 "raw" form if off.
2160
2161print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2162 like instructions.
2163
2164print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2165
2166
2167 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2168
2169The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2170new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2171are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2172window.
2173
2174
2175 * Support for Shared Libraries
2176
2177GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2178Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2179before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2180happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2181At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2182from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2183shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2184It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2185
2186sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2187 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2188 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2189
2190info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2191
2192
2193 * Watchpoints
2194
2195A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2196expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2197tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2198quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2199problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2200more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2201
2202watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2203
2204info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2205
2206delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2207disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2208enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2209
2210
2211 * C++ multiple inheritance
2212
2213When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2214for C++ programs.
2215
2216 * C++ exception handling
2217
2218Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2219ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2220the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2221handler's context).
2222
2223catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2224 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2225 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2226
2227info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2228 current stack frame.
2229
2230
2231 * Minor command changes
2232
2233The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2234command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2235is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2236
2237The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2238at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2239frames without printing.
2240
2241 * New directory command
2242
2243'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2244The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2245about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2246with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2247find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2248
2249 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2250
2251For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2252for more details.
2253
2254GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2255two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2256Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2257where the program that you are debugging will run.