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* cli/cli-cmds.c (disassemble_command): Add support of disassemble
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.2
5
76b8507d 6*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 7
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8* Shared library support for remote targets by default
9
10 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
11 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
12 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
13 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
14 was always disabled for such configurations.
15
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16* C++ Improvements:
17
18 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
19
20 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
21 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
22 For example:
23 namespace A
24 {
25 class B { };
26 void foo (B) { }
27 }
28 ...
29 A::B b
30 foo(b)
31 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
32 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
33 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
34
35 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
36
37 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
38 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
39 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
40 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
41 entry.
42 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
43 mentioned flavors of operators.
44
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45 ** static const class members
46
47 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
48 class definition has been fixed.
49
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50* Windows Thread Information Block access.
51
52 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
53 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
54 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
55 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
56 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
57 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
58
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59* Static tracepoints
60
61 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
62 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
63 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
64 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
65 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
66 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
67 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
68 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
69 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
70 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
71 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
72 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
73 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
74 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
75 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
76 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
77 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
78 the "New remote packets" section below.
79
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80* New remote packets
81
82qGetTIBAddr
83
84 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
85
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86qRelocInsn
87
88 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
89 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
90 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
91 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
92 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
93 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
94
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95qTfSTM, qTsSTM
96
97 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
98
99qTSTMat
100
101 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
102 program.
103
104qXfer:statictrace:read
105
106 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
107 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
108 to gdb's qSupported query.
109
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110* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
111 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
112 a directory.
113
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114* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
115
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116 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
117 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
118 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
119 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
120
121 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
122 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
123 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
124 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
125 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
126 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
127 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
128
129 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
130 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 131
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132 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
133
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134* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
135 it understands register description.
136
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137* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
138
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139* X86 general purpose registers
140
141 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
142 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
143 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
144 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
145 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
146
95a42b64 147* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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148 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
149 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
150 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
151 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
152 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 153
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154* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
155 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
156 in the specified file.
157
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158* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
159 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
160 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
161 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
162 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
163 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
164 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
165 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
166 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
167 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
168
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169* New commands
170
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171eval template, expressions...
172 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
173 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
174
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175set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
176show target-file-system-kind
177 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
178 names.
179
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180save breakpoints <filename>
181 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
182 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
183 definitions, use the `source' command.
184
185`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
186is now deprecated.
187
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188info static-tracepoint-markers
189 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
190
191strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
192 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
193 function, line, address, or marker ID.
194
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195* Changed commands
196
197disassemble
198 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
199
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200* Python scripting
201
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202** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
203 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
204 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
205 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
206 GDB using Python' in the manual.
207
adc36818 208** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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209 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
210 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
211 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 212
fa33c3cd 213** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
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214 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
215
216** New exception gdb.GdbError.
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217
218** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 219
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220** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
221
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222** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
223 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
224 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
225
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226* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
227there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
228tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
229regular breakpoints.
230
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231* New targets
232
233ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
234
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235* D language support.
236 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
237 language.
238
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239* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
240 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
241 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
242 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
243 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
244
245* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
246 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
247 conditions of the form:
248
249 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
250
251 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
252 interface mentioned above.
253
bfbf3774 254*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 255
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256* C++ Improvements
257
258 ** Namespace Support
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259
260 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
261 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
262 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
263 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
264 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
265
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266 ** Bug Fixes
267
268 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
269 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
270 qualified name.
271
272 ** Cast Operators
273
274 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
275 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
276
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277* New targets
278
279Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 280Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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281
282* New Simulators
283
284Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 285Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 286
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287* Multi-program debugging.
288
289 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
290 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
291 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
292 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
293 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
294 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
295 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
296 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
297
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298* New tracing features
299
300 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
301
302 ** Trace state variables
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303
304 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
305 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
306 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
307 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
308 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
309 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
310 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
311 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
312 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
313 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 314
d5551862 315 ** Fast tracepoints
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316
317 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
318 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
319 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
320 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
321 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
322 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
323 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
324 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
325 the regular trace command.
326
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327 ** Disconnected tracing
328
329 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
330 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
331 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
332 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
333 connection is lost unexpectedly.
334
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335 ** Trace files
336
337 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
338 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
339 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
340 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
341 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
342 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
343 <name>".
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344
345 ** Circular trace buffer
346
347 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
348 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
349 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
350 not be available for all target agents.
351
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352* Changed commands
353
354disassemble
355 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
356 the arguments to be comma-separated.
357
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358info variables
359 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
360 which only declare a variable are not shown.
361
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362source
363 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
364 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
365 support.
366
367 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
368 "set script-extension" (see below).
369
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370* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
371
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372record save [<FILENAME>]
373 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
374 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
375
376record restore <FILENAME>
377 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
378 earlier time, for replay debugging.
379
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380add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
381 Add a new inferior.
382
383clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
384 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
385 inferior has loaded.
386
387remove-inferior ID
388 Remove an inferior.
389
390maint info program-spaces
391 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
392
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393set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
394show remote interrupt-sequence
395 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
396 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
397 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
398 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
399 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
400
401set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
402show remote interrupt-on-connect
403 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
404 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
405 Linux kernel.
406
407set remotebreak [on | off]
408show remotebreak
409Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
410
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411tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
412 Create or modify a trace state variable.
413
414info tvariables
415 List trace state variables and their values.
416
417delete tvariable $NAME ...
418 Delete one or more trace state variables.
419
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420teval EXPR, ...
421 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
422 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
423
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424ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
425 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
426
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427* New expression syntax
428
429 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
430 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
431
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432* New options
433
434set follow-exec-mode new|same
435show follow-exec-mode
436 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
437 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
438 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
439
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440set default-collect EXPR, ...
441show default-collect
442 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
443 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
444 such as registers or a critical global variable.
445
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446set disconnected-tracing
447show disconnected-tracing
448 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
449 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
450 upon disconnection.
451
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452set circular-trace-buffer
453show circular-trace-buffer
454 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
455 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
456 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
457 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
458
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459set script-extension off|soft|strict
460show script-extension
461 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
462 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
463 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
464 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
465 evaluation failed.
466 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
467
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468set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
469show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
470 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
471 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
472 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
473 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
474 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
475 is on.
476
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477* Python API Improvements
478
479 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
480 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
481 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
482
483 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
484 `is_base_class' attribute.
485
486 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
487
488 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
489 evaluate an expression.
490
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491* New remote packets
492
493QTDV
494 Define a trace state variable.
495
496qTV
497 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
498
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499QTDisconnected
500 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
501
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502QTBuffer:circular
503 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
504
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505qTfP, qTsP
506 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
507
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508* Bug fixes
509
510Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
511
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512Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
513much more reliable. In particular:
514 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
515 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
516 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
517 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
518 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
519 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
520 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
521 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
522 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
523 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
524 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
525 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
526 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
527 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
528 non-threaded programs.
529
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530PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
531This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
532libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
533executable program.
534
abc7453d 535*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 536
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537* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
538dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
539them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
540for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
541"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
542
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543* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
544breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
545or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
546the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
547for tracepoint actions.
548
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549* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
550raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
551modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 552
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553* Process record and replay
554
555 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
556 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
557 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
558 execute commands.
559
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560* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
561step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
562set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
563reverse execution.
564
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565* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
566feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
5672.6.28 or later.
568
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569* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
570target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
571char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
572literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
573U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
574`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
575system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
576the installation instructions for more information.
577
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578* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
579remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
580with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
581the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
582
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583* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
584and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
585
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586* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
587now complete on file names.
588
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589* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
590completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
591For instance, consider:
592
593 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
594 # struct example variable;
595 (gdb) p variable.
596
597If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
598completions will be "f1" and "f2".
599
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600* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
601the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
602
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603* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
604operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
605macros.
606
47a3467a 607* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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608the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
609implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
610
611* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
612registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
613can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
614and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 615
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616* New remote packets
617
618qSearch:memory:
619 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
620
a6f3e723
SL
621QStartNoAckMode
622 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
623 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
624 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
625
d7713ae0
EZ
626vKill
627 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
628 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
629
07e059b5
VP
630qXfer:osdata:read
631 Obtains additional operating system information
632
47a3467a
PA
633qXfer:siginfo:read
634qXfer:siginfo:write
635 Read or write additional signal information.
636
060871df
PA
637* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
638
639 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
640 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
641 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
642
c055b101 643* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 644DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
645
646* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
647and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
648`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 649
31fffb02
CS
650* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
651with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
652
88d8a8e0
JB
653* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
654
7f99b190
JB
655* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
656
ccd213ac
DJ
657* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
658which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
659
1fddbabb 660* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 661list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 662
a0ef4274
DJ
663* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
664conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
665have also been fixed.
666
bfb8797a 667* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
668From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
669are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 670
71c25dea
TT
671* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
672example, given:
673
674 template<typename T> class C { };
675 C<char const *> c;
676
677GDB will now correctly handle all of:
678
679 ptype C<char const *>
680 ptype C<char const*>
681 ptype C<const char *>
682 ptype C<const char*>
683
ccd213ac
DJ
684* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
685
686 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
687 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
688
7ae0e2a2
UW
689 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
690 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
691 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
692
a6f3e723
SL
693 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
694 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
695
da8bd9a3
DJ
696 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
697 gdbserver.
698
d70e31dd
DE
699 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
700 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
701
702 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
703 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
704 as appropriate.
705
d57a3c85
TJB
706* Python scripting
707
708 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
709 available is determined at configure time.
710
d8906c6f
TJB
711 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
712
aadc346a
JB
713* Ada tasking support
714
715 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
716 been introduced:
717
718 info tasks
719 Print the list of Ada tasks.
720 info task N
721 Print detailed information about task number N.
722 task
723 Print the task number of the current task.
724 task N
725 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
726
adb483fe
DJ
727* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
728add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
729
2277426b
PA
730* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
731
732 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
733 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
734 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
735 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
736 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
737 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
738 below.
739
08d16641
PA
740* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
741"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
742information.
743
e35359c5
UW
744* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
745to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
746architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
747See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
748more information.
749
85e747d2
UW
750* Multi-architecture debugging.
751
752 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
753 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
754 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
755 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
756 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
757
758* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
759use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
760Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
761powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
762--enable-targets configure option.
763
11ade57a
PA
764* Non-stop mode debugging.
765
766 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
767 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
768 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
769 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
770 section in the user manual for more information.
771
772 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
773 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
774 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
775 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
776 extensions on linux targets.
777
d7713ae0 778* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 779
a96d9b2e
SDJ
780catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
781 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
782 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
783 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
784 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
785 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
786 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
787 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
788 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
789
08388c79
DE
790find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
791 val1 [, val2, ...]
792 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
793
d57a3c85
TJB
794maint set python print-stack
795maint show python print-stack
796 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
797
798python [CODE]
799 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
800
d7713ae0
EZ
801macro define
802macro list
803macro undef
804 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
805 interactively.
806
807info os processes
808 Show operating system information about processes.
809
2277426b
PA
810info inferiors
811 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
812
813inferior NUM
814 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
815
816detach inferior NUM
817 Detach from inferior number NUM.
818
819kill inferior NUM
820 Kill inferior number NUM.
821
d7713ae0
EZ
822* New options
823
3285f3fe
UW
824set spu stop-on-load
825show spu stop-on-load
826 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
827
ff1a52c6
UW
828set spu auto-flush-cache
829show spu auto-flush-cache
830 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
831 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
832
d7713ae0
EZ
833set sh calling-convention
834show sh calling-convention
835 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
836
e0a3ce09 837set debug timestamp
75feb17d 838show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
839 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
840
841set disassemble-next-line
842show disassemble-next-line
843 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
844 the debuggee stops.
845
846set remote noack-packet
847show remote noack-packet
848 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
849 under "New remote packets."
850
851set remote query-attached-packet
852show remote query-attached-packet
853 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
854
855set remote read-siginfo-object
856show remote read-siginfo-object
857 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
858 packet.
859
860set remote write-siginfo-object
861show remote write-siginfo-object
862 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
863 packet.
864
40ab02ce
MS
865set remote reverse-continue
866show remote reverse-continue
867 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
868
869set remote reverse-step
870show remote reverse-step
871 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
872
d7713ae0
EZ
873set displaced-stepping
874show displaced-stepping
875 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
876 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
877 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
878
879set debug displaced
880show debug displaced
881 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
882
883maint set internal-error
884maint show internal-error
885 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
886
887maint set internal-warning
888maint show internal-warning
889 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 890
ccd213ac
DJ
891set exec-wrapper
892show exec-wrapper
893unset exec-wrapper
894 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 895
aad4b048
JB
896set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
897show multiple-symbols
898 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
899 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
900 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
901
74960c60
VP
902set breakpoint always-inserted
903show breakpoint always-inserted
904 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
905 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
906 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
907
0428b8f5
DJ
908set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
909show arm fallback-mode
910set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
911show arm force-mode
912 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
913 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
914 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
915 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
916
10568435
JK
917set disable-randomization
918show disable-randomization
919 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
920 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
921 multiple debugging sessions.
922
d7713ae0
EZ
923set non-stop
924show non-stop
925 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
926 a breakpoint.
927
b3eb342c 928set target-async
d7713ae0 929show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
930 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
931 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
932 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
933 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
934
6c7a06a3
TT
935set target-wide-charset
936show target-wide-charset
937 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
938 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
939
84603566
SL
940set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
941show tcp auto-retry
942set tcp connect-timeout
943show tcp connect-timeout
944 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
945 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
946 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
947
17a37d48
PP
948set libthread-db-search-path
949show libthread-db-search-path
950 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
951 libthread_db.
952
d4db2f36
PA
953set schedule-multiple (on|off)
954show schedule-multiple
955 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
956 the current process.
957
4e5d721f
DE
958set stack-cache
959show stack-cache
960 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
961 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
962 affecting correctness.
963
910c5da8
JB
964set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
965show interactive-mode
966 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
967 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
968 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
969 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
970 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
971
2277426b
PA
972* Removed commands
973
974info forks
975 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
976 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
977 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
978 command.
979
980fork NUM
981 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
982 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
983 alias for the `fork' command.
984
985process PID
986 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
987 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
988 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
989
990delete fork NUM
991 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
992 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
993 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
994 fork' command.
995
996detach fork NUM
997 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
998 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
999 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1000 fork' command.
1001
a80b95ba
TG
1002* New native configurations
1003
1004x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1005
b8bfd3ed
JB
1006x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1007
75a2d5e7
TT
1008* New targets
1009
c28c63d8 1010Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1011x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1012x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1013S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1014
6de3146c
PA
1015* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1016 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1017
d5cbbe6e
JB
1018* Removed commands
1019
1020catch load
1021catch unload
1022 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1023
75feb17d 1024*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 1025
af5ca30d
NH
1026* New native configurations
1027
1028NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 1029Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
1030
1031* New targets
1032
1033NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 1034Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 1035
7a404eba
PA
1036* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1037
1038 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1039 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1040 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1041 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1042
430ebac9
PA
1043* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1044(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1045
fe6fbf8b 1046* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 1047is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
1048
1049* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
1050including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1051and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 1052
10665d76
JB
1053* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1054accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1055more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1056
7cc46491
DJ
1057* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1058
d71340b8
DJ
1059* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1060registers on PowerPC targets.
1061
523c4513
DJ
1062* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1063targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1064
a6b151f1
DJ
1065* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1066commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1067
2d717e4f
DJ
1068* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1069extended-remote mode.
1070
24a836bd 1071* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
1072The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1073error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1074The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 1075
d0c678e6
UW
1076* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1077building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1078target architectures.
1079
d64a946d
TJB
1080* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1081Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1082now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1083stored in two consecutive float registers.
1084
ee163bf5
VP
1085* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1086breakpoints now.
1087
b93b6ca7 1088* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1089Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1090include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1091 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1092 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1093 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1094 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1095 of an assignment
1096 - Improved command completion in Ada
1097 - Several bug fixes
1098
d001be7a
DJ
1099* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1100process.
1101
a6b151f1
DJ
1102* New commands
1103
6d53d0af
JB
1104set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1105show print frame-arguments
1106 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1107 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1108
a6b151f1
DJ
1109remote put
1110remote get
1111remote delete
1112 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1113
1114* New MI commands
1115
1116-target-file-put
1117-target-file-get
1118-target-file-delete
1119 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1120
1121* New remote packets
1122
1123vFile:open:
1124vFile:close:
1125vFile:pread:
1126vFile:pwrite:
1127vFile:unlink:
1128 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1129
2d717e4f
DJ
1130vAttach
1131 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1132 mode.
1133
1134vRun
1135 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1136
8d5f9c6f 1137*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1138
19d378fc
MS
1139* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1140bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1141Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1142
3a40aaa0
UW
1143* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1144symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1145-Bsymbolic linker option.
1146
a6ec25f2
BW
1147* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1148recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1149is not supported.
1150
6dd09645
JB
1151* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1152frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1153
c9bb8148
DJ
1154* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
115532-bit or 64-bit register values.
1156
0d5de010
DJ
1157* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1158
23181151
DJ
1159* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1160target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1161a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1162
ea37ba09
DJ
1163* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1164automatically displayed as character or string data.
1165
1166* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1167arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1168as strings.
e1f48ead 1169
123dc839
DJ
1170* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1171for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1172only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1173
05a4558a
DJ
1174* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1175iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1176
7c963485
PA
1177* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1178ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1179has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1180
b18be20d
DJ
1181* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1182
0ca420ce
UW
1183* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1184
31d99776
DJ
1185* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1186layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1187segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1188
a4642986
MR
1189* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1190immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1191
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1192* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1193"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1194packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1195where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1196Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1197
1198* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1199(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1200
1201* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1202according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1203
c9bb8148
DJ
1204* New commands
1205
23776285
MR
1206set remoteflow
1207show remoteflow
1208 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1209 when debugging using remote targets.
1210
c9bb8148
DJ
1211set mem inaccessible-by-default
1212show mem inaccessible-by-default
1213 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1214 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1215 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1216 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1217 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1218
1219set breakpoint auto-hw
1220show breakpoint auto-hw
1221 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1222 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1223 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1224 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1225 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1226 including "next" and "finish".
1227
0e420bd8
JB
1228catch exception
1229catch exception unhandled
1230 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1231
1232catch assert
1233 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1234
f822c95b
DJ
1235set sysroot
1236show sysroot
1237 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1238 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1239 an alias to "set sysroot".
1240
83cc5c53
UW
1241info spu
1242 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1243 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1244 architecture.
1245
bd372731
MK
1246* New native configurations
1247
1248OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1249
23181151
DJ
1250set tdesc filename
1251unset tdesc filename
1252show tdesc filename
1253 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1254 not query the target for its built-in description.
1255
c9bb8148
DJ
1256* New targets
1257
54fe9172 1258OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1259MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1260Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1261
6dd09645
JB
1262* New remote packets
1263
1264QPassSignals:
1265 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1266 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1267
23181151
DJ
1268qXfer:features:read:
1269 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1270 features.
6dd09645 1271
83cc5c53
UW
1272qXfer:spu:read:
1273qXfer:spu:write:
1274 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1275 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1276
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1277qXfer:libraries:read:
1278 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1279 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1280 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1281 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1282
483367ee
DJ
1283* Removed targets
1284
1285Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1286
d08950c4
UW
1287alpha*-*-osf1*
1288alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1289d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1290hppa*-*-hiux*
1291i[34567]86-ncr-*
1292i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1293i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1294i[34567]86-*-netware*
1295i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1296i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1297i[34567]86-*-sco*
1298i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1299i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1300i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1301i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1302i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1303i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1304i[34567]86-*-isc*
1305m68*-cisco*-*
1306m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1307mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1308rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1309sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1310
7ce59000
DJ
1311* Other removed features
1312
1313target abug
1314target cpu32bug
1315target est
1316target rom68k
1317
1318 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1319
ea35711c
DJ
1320target hms
1321target e7000
1322target sh3
1323target sh3e
1324
1325 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1326 H8/300.
1327
1328target ocd
1329
1330 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1331 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1332 interfaces.
1333
7ce59000
DJ
1334DWARF 1 support
1335
1336 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1337 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1338
54d61198
DJ
1339Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1340
1341 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1342 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1343 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1344 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1345
ea35711c
DJ
1346MIPS ".pdr" sections
1347
1348 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1349 in debugging information.
1350
1351Scheme support
1352
1353 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1354 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1355
1a69e1e4
DJ
1356set mips stack-arg-size
1357set mips saved-gpreg-size
1358
1359 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1360
6dd09645 1361*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1362
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1363* New targets
1364
1365Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1366Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1367
6aec2e11
DJ
1368* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1369(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1370running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1371
1372* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1373Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1374supported.
1375
17218d91
DJ
1376* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1377broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1378
9ebce043
DJ
1379* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1380stub provides the required support.
1381
7d3d3ece
DJ
1382* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1383longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1384
4f8253f3
JB
1385* New commands
1386
1387set substitute-path
1388unset substitute-path
1389show substitute-path
1390 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1391 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1392 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1393 between compilation and debugging.
1394
9fa66fd7
AS
1395set trace-commands
1396show trace-commands
1397 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1398 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1399 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1400
1f5befc1
DJ
1401* REMOVED features
1402
1403The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1404
2ec3381a
DJ
1405Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1406an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1407
3d00d119
DJ
1408The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1409
be2a5f71
DJ
1410* New remote packets
1411
1412qSupported:
1413 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1414 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1415 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1416 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1417 target.
1418
0876f84a
DJ
1419qXfer:auxv:read:
1420 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1421 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1422
9ebce043
DJ
1423qXfer:memory-map:read:
1424 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1425 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1426
1427vFlashErase:
1428vFlashWrite:
1429vFlashDone:
1430 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1431
0876f84a
DJ
1432* Removed remote packets
1433
1434qPart:auxv:read:
1435 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1436 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1437
e374b601 1438*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1439
96309189
MS
1440* New targets
1441
1442Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1443
1444Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1445
53e5f3cf
AS
1446* New commands
1447
1448init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1449 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1450
ac264b3b
MS
1451The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1452
1453checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1454
1455restart <n> Return the program state to a
1456 previously saved state.
1457
1458info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1459
1460delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1461
1462set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1463 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1464
1465info forks List forks of the user program that
1466 are available to be debugged.
1467
1468fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1469 forks of the user program that are
1470 available to be debugged.
1471
1472delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1473 that are available to be debugged (and
1474 kill the forked process).
1475
1476detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1477 that are available to be debugged (and
1478 allow the process to continue).
1479
3950dc3f
NS
1480* New architecture
1481
1482Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1483
0ea3f30e
DJ
1484* Improved Windows host support
1485
1486GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1487native console support, and remote communications using either
1488network sockets or serial ports.
1489
f79daebb
GM
1490* Improved Modula-2 language support
1491
1492GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1493basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1494pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1495printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1496written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1497GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1498
acab6ab2
MM
1499* REMOVED features
1500
1501The ARM rdi-share module.
1502
f4267320
DJ
1503The Netware NLM debug server.
1504
53e5f3cf 1505*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1506
e0ecbda1
MK
1507* New native configurations
1508
02a677ac 1509OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1510OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1511
d64a6579
KB
1512* New targets
1513
1514Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1515
b33a6190
AS
1516* New command line options
1517
1518--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1519--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1520 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1521--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1522 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1523 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1524 with the --command (-x) option.
1525
11dced61
AC
1526* Deprecated commands removed
1527
1528The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1529removed:
1530
1531 Command Replacement
1532 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1533 othernames set arm disassembler
1534 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1535 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1536 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1537 regs info registers
1538
6fe85783
MK
1539* New BSD user-level threads support
1540
1541It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1542library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1543configurations are:
1544
1545FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1546FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1547OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1548
1549Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1550are not yet supported.
1551
5260ca71
MS
1552* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1553(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1554
e84ecc99
AC
1555* REMOVED configurations and files
1556
1557VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1558Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1559National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1560
31e35378
JB
1561* New "set print array-indexes" command
1562
1563After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1564when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1565behavior.
1566
e85e5c83
MK
1567* VAX floating point support
1568
1569GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1570
d91e9901
AS
1571* User-defined command support
1572
1573In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1574to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1575section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1576
f2cb65ca
MC
1577*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1578
f47b1503
AS
1579* New command line option
1580
1581GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1582debugging.
1583
f2cb65ca
MC
1584* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1585
1586GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1587information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1588by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1589proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1590to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1591
d08c0230
AC
1592* Internationalization
1593
1594When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1595internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1596continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1597
117ea3cf
PH
1598* Ada
1599
1600Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1601implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1602into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1603
d08c0230
AC
1604* New native configurations
1605
1606GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1607
1608* Remote 'p' packet
1609
1610GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1611packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1612
1613* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1614
1615GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1616The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1617features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1618i386 application).
1619
1620GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1621compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1622continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1623configurations:
1624
1625hppa-*-hpux
1626ia64-*-aix
1627mips-*-irix*
1628*-*-lynx
1629mips-*-linux-gnu
1630sds protocol
1631xdr protocol
1632powerpc bdm protocol
1633
1634Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1635made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1636
1637* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1638
1639Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1640been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1641configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1642permanently REMOVED.
1643
1644h8300-*-*
1645mcore-*-*
1646mn10300-*-*
1647ns32k-*-*
1648sh64-*-*
1649v850-*-*
1650
ebb7c577
AC
1651*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1652
1653* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1654
1655When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1656heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1657been fixed.
1658
1659* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1660
1661When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1662fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1663IRIX long double values).
1664
1665* VAX and "next"
1666
1667A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1668command. This problem has been fixed.
1669
860660cb 1670*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1671
0dea2468
AC
1672* Fix for ``many threads''
1673
1674On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1675rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1676error message:
1677
1678 ptrace: No such process.
1679 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1680
1681This problem has been fixed.
1682
2c07db7a
AC
1683* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1684
1685Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1686GDB to dump core).
1687
c23968a2
JB
1688* New ``start'' command.
1689
1690This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1691
71009278
MK
1692* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1693
1694Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1695live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1696platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1697
1698FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1699FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1700NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1701NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1702NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1703OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1704OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1705OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1706OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1707
3c0b7db2
AC
1708* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1709
1710Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1711These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1712of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1713call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1714signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1715
73cc75f3
AC
1716Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1717features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1718include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1719
7243600a
BF
1720* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1721
6f606e1c
MK
1722* New native configurations
1723
97dc871c 1724GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1725OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1726OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1727OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1728OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1729NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1730OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1731
a1b461bf
AC
1732* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1733
1734GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1735The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1736including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1737migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1738compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1739work, was also included.
1740
1741GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1742module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1743
1744h8300-*-*
1745mcore-*-*
1746mn10300-*-*
1747ns32k-*-*
1748sh64-*-*
1749v850-*-*
1750xstormy16-*-*
1751
1752Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1753made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1754
3c7012f5
AC
1755* REMOVED configurations and files
1756
1757Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1758Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1759Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1760Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1761Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1762AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1763Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1764decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1765riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1766sonymips mips-sony-*
1767sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1768
e5fe55f7
AC
1769*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1770
1771* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1772
1773The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1774GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1775command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1776program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1777with GDB".
1778
1779* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1780
1781Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1782libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1783cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1784GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1785shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1786the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1787are created.
1788
1789Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1790
1791* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1792
1793The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1794non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1795compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1796
1797* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1798
1799Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1800wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1801
1802* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1803
1804The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1805permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1806systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1807
1808* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1809
1810Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1811has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1812
1813* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1814
1815GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1816its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1817panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1818
1819* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1820
1821When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1822by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1823not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1824
faae5abe 1825*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1826
9175c9a3
MC
1827* Removed --with-mmalloc
1828
1829Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1830conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1831
3cc87ec0
MK
1832* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1833
1834The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1835the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1836and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1837you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1838
f0424ef6
MK
1839* Revised SPARC target
1840
1841The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1842FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1843support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1844from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1845(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1846
59659be2
ILT
1847* New C++ demangler
1848
1849GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1850names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1851with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1852programs.
1853
9e08b29b
DJ
1854* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1855
1856GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1857arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1858encountered these.
1859
8dfe8985
DC
1860* C++ nested types and namespaces
1861
1862GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1863improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1864is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1865Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1866namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1867"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1868frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1869if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1870GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1871
cced5e27
MK
1872* New native configurations
1873
1874NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1875OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1876OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1877OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1878OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1879
b4b4b794
KI
1880* New debugging protocols
1881
1882M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1883
7989c619
AC
1884* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1885
1886The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1887and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1888tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1889
5994185b
AC
1890* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1891
1892Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1893been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1894configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1895permanently REMOVED.
1896
1897Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1898Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1899Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1900Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1901Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1902AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1903Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1904decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1905riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1906sonymips mips-sony-*
1907sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1908
0ddabb4c
AC
1909* REMOVED configurations and files
1910
1911SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1912SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1913Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1914Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1915H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1916HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1917HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1918HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1919PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1920386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1921Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1922 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1923 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1924SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1925SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1926Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1927Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1928
c7f1390e
DJ
1929*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1930
1fe43d45
AC
1931* Objective-C
1932
1933Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1934integrated into GDB.
1935
e6beb428
AC
1936* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1937
1938DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1939information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1940By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1941backtraces.
1942
1943The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1944have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1945DWARF 2 CFI support.
1946
1947* Hosted file I/O.
1948
1949GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1950file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1951remote protocol documentation for details.
1952
1953* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1954
1955All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1956architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1957to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1958ppc32 on ppc64).
1959
1960* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1961
1962GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1963per-thread variables.
1964
1965* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1966
1967GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1968GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1969
1970* Separate debug info.
1971
1972GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1973automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1974of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1975system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1976and optional debug files.
1977
1978* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1979
1980DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1981describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1982debugger.
1983
1984GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1985for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1986
1987* Java
1988
1989A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1990Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1991considered "useable".
1992
85f8f974
DJ
1993* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1994
1995The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1996commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1997kernel.
1998
0fac0b41
DJ
1999* GDB supports logging output to a file
2000
2001There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2002used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2003
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2004* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2005
2006The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2007disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2008command.
2009
e286caf2 2010* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2011
2012The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2013registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2014
d28f9cdf
DJ
2015* Profiling support
2016
2017A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2018be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2019session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2020"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2021data, for more informative profiling results.
2022
da0f9dcd
AC
2023* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2024
2025The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2026option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 2027"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
2028
2029Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2030removed.
2031
fb9b6b35
JJ
2032Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2033Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2034Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2035 in a subsequent -var-update.
2036
954a4db8
MK
2037* New native configurations.
2038
2039FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2040
6760f9e6
JB
2041* Multi-arched targets.
2042
b4263afa 2043HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 2044Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 2045
1b831c93
AC
2046* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2047
2048Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2049been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2050configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2051permanently REMOVED.
2052
8b0e5691 2053Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 2054Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 2055H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
2056HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2057HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2058HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 2059PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
2060Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2061 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2062 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
2063Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2064Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 2065
5835abe7
NC
2066* REMOVED configurations and files
2067
2068V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
2069Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2070IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2071i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2072i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2073i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2074HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2075 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2076 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2077Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2078Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2079Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2080OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2081I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2082
a094c6fb
AC
2083* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2084
2085The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2086the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2087context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2088address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2089The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2090
299ffc64 2091*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2092
46248966
AC
2093* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2094
2095When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2096`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2097in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2098library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2099shared libs like mad''.
2100
b9d14705 2101* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2102
b9d14705
DJ
2103Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2104the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2105arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2106powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2107
e0e9281e
JB
2108* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2109
2110GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2111and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2112they expand.
2113
dd73b9bb
AC
2114The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2115invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2116
2117The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2118macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2119
e0e9281e
JB
2120Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2121information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2122your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2123information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2124
2250ee0c
CV
2125* Multi-arched targets.
2126
6e3ba3b8
JT
2127DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2128DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2129NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2130National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2131Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2132Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2133
cd9bfe15 2134* New targets.
e33ce519 2135
456f8b9d
DB
2136Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2137
e33ce519 2138
da8ca43d
JT
2139* New native configurations
2140
2141Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2142SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2143MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2144UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2145
cd9bfe15
AC
2146* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2147
2148Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2149been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2150configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2151permanently REMOVED.
2152
92eb23c5 2153Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2154OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2155IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2156Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2157Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2158Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2159i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2160i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2161i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2162HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2163 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2164 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2165I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2166
db034ac5
AC
2167* OBSOLETE languages
2168
2169CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2170
cd9bfe15
AC
2171* REMOVED configurations and files
2172
2173AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2174A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2175AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2176AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2177AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2178
2179testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2180
20f01a46
DH
2181* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2182
2183This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2184commands. The default is 1024.
2185
a5941fbf
MK
2186* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2187
2188Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2189
89743e04
MS
2190* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2191
2192These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2193to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2194from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2195
9fb14e79
JB
2196* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2197
2198The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2199including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2200of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2201
2037aebb
AC
2202*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2203
2204* New targets.
2205
2206Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2207
2208* Bug fixes
2209
2210gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2211mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2212Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2213
2214gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2215dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2216Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2217
2218Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2219Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2220By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2221
2222i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2223avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2224By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2225
37057839 2226*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2227
1a703748
MS
2228* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2229
2230This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2231really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2232In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2233target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2234This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2235(notably embedded) targets.
2236
cefd4ef5
MS
2237* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2238
55241689
AC
2239This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2240process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2241GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2242hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2243
352ed7b4
MS
2244* New command line option
2245
2246GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2247
2248* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2249
2250There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2251command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2252a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2253be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2254open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2255issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2256a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2257it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2258GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2259is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2260
fe419ffc
RE
2261* Changes in ARM configurations.
2262
2263Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2264configuration is fully multi-arch.
2265
eb7cedd9
MK
2266* New native configurations
2267
fe419ffc 2268ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2269x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2270AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2271Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2272
c9f63e6b
CV
2273* New targets
2274
2275Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2276
9b4ff276
AC
2277* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2278
2279Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2280been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2281configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2282permanently REMOVED.
2283
2284AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2285A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2286AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2287AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2288AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2289
b4ceaee6 2290testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2291
e2caac18
AC
2292* REMOVED configurations and files
2293
2294TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2295WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2296PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2297PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2298PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2299Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2300Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2301 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2302SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2303Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2304Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2305ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2306Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2307
c2a727fa
TT
2308* Changes to command line processing
2309
2310The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2311for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2312
467d8519
TT
2313* Changes to key bindings
2314
2315There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2316
7072a954
AC
2317*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2318
2319Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2320
2321Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2322corrupted.
2323
2324Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2325
2326Numerous documentation fixes.
2327
2328Numerous testsuite fixes.
2329
34f47bc4 2330*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2331
2332* New native configurations
2333
2334Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2335x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2336MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2337MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2338ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2339s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2340
bf64bfd6
AC
2341* New targets
2342
def90278 2343Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2344CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2345UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2346
17e78a56 2347* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2348
2349x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2350Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2351Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2352 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2353TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2354WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2355Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2356PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2357PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2358PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2359SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2360Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2361ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2362Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2363
17e78a56
AC
2364stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2365kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2366
7fcca85b
AC
2367Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2368been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2369configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2370permanently REMOVED.
2371
a196c81c 2372* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2373
2374Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2375Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2376Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2377ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2378Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2379ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2380
6d6b80e5 2381* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2382
6d6b80e5 2383GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2384sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2385present.
2386
bf64bfd6
AC
2387* Other news:
2388
e23194cb
EZ
2389* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2390
2391* The MI enabled by default.
2392
2393The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2394revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2395engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2396using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2397which is now deprecated.
2398
2399* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2400
2401GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2402main features are supported:
2403
2404 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2405
2406 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2407 extension;
2408
2409 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2410
2411 - a Pascal expression parser.
2412
2413However, some important features are not yet supported.
2414
2415 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2416
2417 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2418
2419 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2420 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2421
2422 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2423
2424 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2425
2426* Changes in completion.
2427
2428Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2429to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2430users expect at the shell prompt.
2431
2432Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2433`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2434program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2435files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2436be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2437considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2438name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2439
2440`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2441
2442* New platform-independent commands:
2443
2444It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2445hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2446documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2447
2448* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2449
d7275149
MK
2450Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2451revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2452many threads as your system allows you to have.
2453
e23194cb
EZ
2454Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2455
d7275149
MK
2456Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2457multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2458
2459* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2460
2461Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2462
e23194cb
EZ
2463GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2464debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2465supported.)
2466
2467* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2468
2469Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2470breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2471implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2472put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2473and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2474registers.
2475
2476The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2477debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2478watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2479
2480* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2481
2482New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2483the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2484
2485New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2486display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2487IDT.
2488
2489New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2490from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2491New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2492a given linear address.
2493
2494GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2495program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2496which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2497
2498DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2499
6c56c069
EZ
2500It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2501
e23194cb
EZ
2502* Changes in documentation.
2503
2504All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2505Documentation License.
2506
2507Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2508manual.
2509
2510TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2511
2512Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2513manual.
2514
2515The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2516documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2517hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2518
5d6640b1
AC
2519* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2520
2521The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2522``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2523contents of this file.
2524
1a1d8446
AC
2525* gdba.el deleted
2526
2527GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2528
9debab2f 2529*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2530
c63ce875
EZ
2531* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2532
2533Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2534programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2535displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2536greater level of detail.
2537
2538* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2539
2540It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2541bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2542on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2543written.
2544
2545* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2546
2547The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2548necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2549machines ``out of the box''.
2550
2551The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2552possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2553signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2554would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2555interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2556
2557It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2558standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2559even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2560and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2561terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2562
2563The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2564enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2565also works.
2566
2567DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2568GDB.
2569
2570It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2571directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2572times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2573breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2574
ed9a39eb
JM
2575* New native configurations
2576
2577ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2578PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2579
7a292a7a
SS
2580* New targets
2581
96baa820 2582Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2583x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2584PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2585TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2586
085dd6e6
JM
2587* OBSOLETE configurations
2588
2589Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2590Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2591Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2592ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2593Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2594
9debab2f
AC
2595Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2596but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2597these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2598be permanently REMOVED.
2599
5330533d
SS
2600* Gould support removed
2601
2602Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2603
bc9e5bbf
AC
2604* New features for SVR4
2605
2606On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2607without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2608load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2609
2610* Many C++ enhancements
2611
2612C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2613in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2614
adf40b2e
JM
2615* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2616
2617A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2618sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2619with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2620``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2621
2622 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2623 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2624
43e526b9
JM
2625* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2626
2627A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2628expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2629instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2630
2631The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2632added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2633
96baa820
JM
2634* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2635
2636The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2637``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2638include ``set remote P-packet''.
2639
11cf8741
JM
2640* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2641
2642The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2643accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2644``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2645
7876dd43
DB
2646* ``apropos'' command added.
2647
2648The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2649documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2650try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2651
bc9e5bbf
AC
2652* New MI interface
2653
2654A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2655interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2656process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2657"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2658enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2659
2660 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2661
c906108c
SS
2662*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2663
2664* New native configurations
2665
2666HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2667HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2668M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2669
2670* New targets
2671
2672Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2673Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2674Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2675
2676* OBSOLETE configurations
2677
2678Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2679
2680Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2681but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2682these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2683be permanently REMOVED.
2684
2685* ANSI/ISO C
2686
2687As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2688buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2689containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2690use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2691available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2692configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2693information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2694already.
2695
2696* Readline 2.2
2697
2698GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2699
2700* set extension-language
2701
2702You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2703languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2704you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2705 set extension-language .c c++
2706The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2707and their associated languages.
2708
2709* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2710
2711When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2712you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2713PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2714
2715 set processor NAME
2716
2717sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2718following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2719
2720 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2721 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2722 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2723 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2724 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2725 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2726 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2727 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2728 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2729 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2730 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2731
2732At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2733special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2734registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2735only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2736
2737* HP-UX support
2738
2739Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2740more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2741library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2742support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2743for xdb and dbx commands.
2744
2745* Catchpoints
2746
2747HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2748generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2749to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2750
2751This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2752argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2753output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2754
2755* Debugging across forks
2756
2757On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2758in the inferior.
2759
2760* TUI
2761
2762HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2763it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2764configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2765
2766* GDB remote protocol additions
2767
2768A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2769Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2770fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2771allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2772
2773For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2774full 64-bit address. The command
2775
2776 set remoteaddresssize 32
2777
2778can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2779the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2780will be discarded.
2781
2782In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2783command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2784
2785 maint packet heythere
2786
2787sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2788disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2789time.
2790
2791The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2792target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2793downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2794
2795* Tracing can collect general expressions
2796
2797You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2798further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2799doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2800
2801* mask-address variable for Mips
2802
2803For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2804a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2805of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2806
2807* Higher serial baud rates
2808
2809GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2810230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2811to achieve all of these rates.)
2812
2813* i960 simulator
2814
2815The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2816builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2817
2818
2819*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2820
2821* New native configurations
2822
2823Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2824Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2825Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2826PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2827PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2828Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2829Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2830
2831* New targets
2832
2833Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2834Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2835Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2836Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2837MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2838MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2839MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2840Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2841Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2842Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2843NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2844
2845* New debugging protocols
2846
2847ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2848M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2849DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2850PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2851PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2852Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2853
2854* DWARF 2
2855
2856All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2857format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2858information.
2859
2860* Java frontend
2861
2862GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2863only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2864
2865* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2866
2867For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2868loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2869locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2870
2871* Live range splitting
2872
2873GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2874range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2875more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2876
2877* Hurd support
2878
2879GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2880updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2881
2882* ARM Thumb support
2883
2884GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2885instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2886instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2887accordingly.
2888
2889* MIPS16 support
2890
2891GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2892instruction set.
2893
2894* Overlay support
2895
2896GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2897linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2898will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2899control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2900additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2901in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2902
2903* info symbol
2904
2905The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2906the symbol at the specified address.
2907
2908* Trace support
2909
2910The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2911asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2912extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2913includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2914file tracepoint.c for more details.
2915
2916* MIPS simulator
2917
2918Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2919by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2920of most MIPS variants.
2921
2922* Sparc simulator
2923
2924Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2925by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2926Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2927
2928* set architecture
2929
2930For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2931basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2932architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2933the possible architectures.
2934
2935*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2936
2937* New native configurations
2938
2939Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2940M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2941PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2942PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2943PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2944RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2945
2946* New targets
2947
2948ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2949I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2950MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2951MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2952PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2953Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2954Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2955
2956* PowerPC simulator
2957
2958The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2959contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2960PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2961basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2962performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2963
2964* Solaris 2.5
2965
2966GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2967
2968* Windows 95/NT native
2969
2970GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2971To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2972which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2973Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2974ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2975
2976* dont-repeat command
2977
2978If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2979command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2980useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2981extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2982
2983* Send break instead of ^C
2984
2985The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2986rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2987GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2988
2989* Remote protocol timeout
2990
2991The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2992that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2993to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2994
2995* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2996
2997By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2998loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2999stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3000when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3001in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3002
3003Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3004/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3005automatically on hpux10.
3006
3007* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3008
3009Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3010
3011* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3012
3013When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3014may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3015the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3016every character. The default value is 1050.
3017
3018* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3019
3020If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3021a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3022replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3023details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3024remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3025to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3026
3027* Speedups for remote debugging
3028
3029GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3030the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3031and more efficient S-record downloading.
3032
3033* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3034
3035GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3036Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3037
3038*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3039
3040* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3041
3042The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3043can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3044
3045* Remote targets use caching
3046
3047Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3048remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3049it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3050debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3051off' turns the the data cache off.
3052
3053* Remote targets may have threads
3054
3055The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3056in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3057gdb/remote.c for details.
3058
3059* NetROM support
3060
3061If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3062support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3063acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3064write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3065support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3066another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3067sequence is something like
3068
3069 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3070 load <prog>
3071 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3072
3073* Macintosh host
3074
3075GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3076may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3077it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3078available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3079device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3080directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3081scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3082mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3083
3084* Autoconf
3085
3086GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3087but does simplify configuration and building.
3088
3089* hpux10
3090
3091GDB now supports hpux10.
3092
3093*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3094
3095* New native configurations
3096
3097x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3098x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3099NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3100Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3101
3102* New targets
3103
3104A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3105HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3106CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3107PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3108WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3109
3110* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3111
3112GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3113possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3114filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3115the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3116if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3117
3118* Arguments to user-defined commands
3119
3120User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3121Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3122trivial example:
3123define adder
3124 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3125
3126To execute the command use:
3127adder 1 2 3
3128
3129Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3130Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3131use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3132
3133* New `if' and `while' commands
3134
3135This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3136commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3137expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3138execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3139terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3140`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3141if the expression is zero.
3142
3143* Fortran source language mode
3144
3145GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3146Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3147variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3148with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3149Fortran compilers.
3150
3151* Better HPUX support
3152
3153Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3154running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3155processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3156for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3157that behavior do the following before running the program:
3158
3159 adb -w a.out
3160 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3161 control-d
3162
3163This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3164To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3165
3166 adb -w a.out
3167 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3168 control-d
3169
3170You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3171the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3172external linkage.
3173
3174GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3175HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3176
3177* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3178
3179You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3180commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3181current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3182"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3183associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3184configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3185
3186* New DOS host serial code
3187
3188This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3189no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3190a PC's serial port.
3191
3192*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3193
3194* New "complete" command
3195
3196This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3197were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3198
3199* Trailing space optional in prompt
3200
3201"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3202allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3203
3204* Breakpoint hit counts
3205
3206"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3207has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3208can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3209to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3210less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3211that breakpoint.
3212
3213* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3214
3215"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3216an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3217arrays actually contain only short strings.
3218
3219* Shared library breakpoints
3220
3221In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3222breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3223
3224* Hardware watchpoints
3225
3226There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3227targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3228
55241689 3229Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3230
3231* Annotations
3232
3233Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3234and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3235
3236* Improved Irix 5 support
3237
3238GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3239
3240* Improved HPPA support
3241
3242GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3243
3244* New native configurations
3245
3246Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3247HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3248Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3249RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3250
3251* New targets
3252
3253OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3254MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3255Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3256
3257* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3258
3259There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3260This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3261
3262* Fixes
3263
3264As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3265and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3266
3267*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3268
3269* Irix 5 is now supported
3270
3271* HPPA support
3272
3273GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3274to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3275GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3276of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3277can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3278
3279
3280*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3281
3282* User visible changes:
3283
3284* Remote Debugging
3285
3286The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3287target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3288debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3289integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3290debugging info for the mips target).
3291
3292* DEC Alpha native support
3293
3294GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3295debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3296work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3297Alpha-specific notes.
3298
3299* Preliminary thread implementation
3300
3301GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3302
3303* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3304
3305This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3306to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3307for details).
3308
3309* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3310
3311This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3312mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3313call methods, ...etc.
3314
3315*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3316
3317 * User visible changes:
3318
3319Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3320supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3321other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3322somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3323
3324Filename completion now works.
3325
3326When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3327arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3328addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3329
3330All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3331vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3332should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3333your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3334to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3335
3336 * DEC alpha support
3337
3338This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3339cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3340
3341
3342*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3343
3344 * Testsuite
3345
3346This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3347The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3348via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3349
3350 * C++ demangling
3351
3352'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3353emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3354Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3355disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3356use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3357
3358 * Simulators
3359
3360GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3361So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3362Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3363
3364 * New targets supported
3365
3366H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3367H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3368SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3369Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3370IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3371
3372Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3373version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3374GO32 memory extender.
3375
3376 * New remote protocols
3377
3378MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3379
3380 * New source languages supported
3381
3382This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3383used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3384into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3385
3386
3387*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3388
3389 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3390
3391GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3392version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3393University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3394compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3395format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3396(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3397
3398Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3399
3400 * Faster and better demangling
3401
3402We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3403demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3404character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3405only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3406This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3407increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3408symbol lookups.
3409
3410`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3411from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3412compiler does not actually implement.
3413
3414 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3415
3416In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3417inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3418recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3419very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3420The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3421circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3422fix.
3423
3424The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3425release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3426
3427 * Improved configure script
3428
3429The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3430you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3431host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3432done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3433
3434We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3435version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3436`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3437The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3438only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3439We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3440
3441 * Documentation improvements
3442
3443There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3444produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3445before submitting changes.
3446
3447The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3448M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3449`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3450you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3451a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3452
3453*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3454We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3455been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3456or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3457`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3458around this problem.
3459
3460 * New features
3461
3462GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3463the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3464`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3465the target program.
3466
3467The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3468how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3469
3470 * New native hosts supported
3471
3472HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3473386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3474
3475 * New targets supported
3476
3477AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3478
3479 * New file formats supported
3480
3481BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3482HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3483
3484 * Major bug fixes
3485
3486Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3487
3488We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3489printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3490
3491We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3492for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3493release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3494
3495You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3496will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3497
3498We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3499for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3500especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3501libraries.
3502
3503The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3504information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3505command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3506any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3507when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3508
3509 * Internal improvements
3510
3511GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3512debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3513
3514GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3515Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3516symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3517contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3518shared code that handles any of them.
3519
3520 * New command line options
3521
3522We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3523
3524 * Mmalloc licensing
3525
3526The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3527General Public License.
3528
3529*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3530
3531 * Host/native/target split
3532
3533GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3534hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3535target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3536local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3537ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3538
3539The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3540GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3541is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3542code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3543any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3544built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3545handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3546
3547GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3548It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3549plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3550
3551 * New hosts supported
3552
3553HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3554386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3555386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3556
3557 * New targets supported
3558
3559Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
356068030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3561
3562 * New native hosts supported
3563
3564386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3565 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3566386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3567
3568 * New file formats supported
3569
3570BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3571supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3572format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3573
3574 * New commands
3575
3576`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3577`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3578These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3579
3580`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3581
3582You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3583scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3584prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3585executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3586
3587 * C++ improvements
3588
3589We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3590info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3591symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3592
3593Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3594
3595 * Major bug fixes
3596
3597The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3598fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3599by the compiler.
3600
3601We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3602support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3603
3604John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3605slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3606that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3607purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3608the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3609mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3610
3611Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3612about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3613completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3614we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3615
3616 * AMD 29k support
3617
3618A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3619specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3620calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3621usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3622in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3623
3624We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3625Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3626of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3627resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3628
3629 * Remote interfaces
3630
3631We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3632with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3633message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3634This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3635needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3636breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3637each instruction being stepped through.
3638
3639The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3640registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3641
3642There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3643find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3644Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3645processor with a serial port.
3646
3647 * Configuration
3648
3649Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3650`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3651supported, and what files each one uses.
3652
3653 * Library changes
3654
3655There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3656disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3657Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3658disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3659
3660The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3661Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3662can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3663grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3664
3665 * Documentation
3666
3667The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3668reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3669as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3670encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3671system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3672bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3673
3674And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3675
3676
3677*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3678
3679 * Better support for C++ function names
3680
3681GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3682names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3683(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3684single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3685Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3686
3687GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3688the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3689You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3690lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3691for the list of formats.
3692
3693 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3694
3695Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3696C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3697directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3698can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3699usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3700about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3701this problem.)
3702
3703 * New 'maintenance' command
3704
3705All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3706the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3707can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3708
3709 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3710 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3711 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3712 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3713 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3714 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3715
3716The following commands are new:
3717
3718 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3719 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3720 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3721
3722 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3723
3724We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3725(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3726be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3727read after argv processing.
3728
3729 * New hosts supported
3730
3731Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3732
55241689 3733GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3734
3735We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3736is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3737for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3738masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3739fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3740It costs extra.
3741
3742 * New targets supported
3743
3744Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3745
3746 * More smarts about finding #include files
3747
3748GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3749all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3750greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3751especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3752the one that contains your sources.
3753
3754We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3755breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3756try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3757
3758 * Interesting infernals change
3759
3760GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3761section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3762target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3763stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3764
3765 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3766
3767There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3768 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3769 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3770
3771See the ChangeLog for details.
3772
3773*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3774
3775 * New machines supported (host and target)
3776
3777IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3778
3779SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3780
3781 * New malloc package
3782
3783GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3784Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3785capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3786This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3787pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3788more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3789
3790 * info proc
3791
3792The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3793'help info proc' for details.
3794
3795 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3796
3797The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3798Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3799possible.
3800
3801 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3802
3803Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3804support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3805conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3806environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3807that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3808in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3809
3810 * Cross byte order fixes
3811
3812Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3813targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3814
3815 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3816
3817If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3818system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3819`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3820program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3821called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3822Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3823and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3824the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3825option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3826starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3827
3828You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3829the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3830information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3831slower, but makes future operations faster.
3832
3833The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3834build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3835A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3836use is:
3837
3838 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3839
3840The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3841It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3842shared across multiple host platforms.
3843
3844 * longjmp() handling
3845
3846GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3847siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3848all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3849platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3850
3851 * Solaris 2.0
3852
3853Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3854this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3855reading symbols.
3856
3857 * Bug fixes
3858
3859As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3860People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3861crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3862
3863*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3864
3865 * New machines supported (host and target)
3866
3867SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3868 (except core files)
3869BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3870Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3871
3872 * New machines supported (target)
3873
3874AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3875
3876 * C++ support
3877
3878GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3879The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3880per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3881
3882GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3883`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3884extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3885good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3886will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3887released.
3888
3889 * New features for SVR4
3890
3891GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3892shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3893only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3894
3895The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3896on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3897it prints the address mappings of the process.
3898
3899If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3900bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3901
3902 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3903
3904Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3905now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3906skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3907make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3908same code linked statically.
3909
3910 * New Getopt
3911
3912GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3913version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3914continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3915Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3916added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3917future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3918
3919 * Bugs fixed
3920
3921The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3922Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3923See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3924
3925
3926*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3927
3928 * New machines supported (host and target)
3929
3930Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3931NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3932Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3933
3934 * Almost SCO Unix support
3935
3936We had hoped to support:
3937SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3938(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3939that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3940about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3941
3942 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3943
3944GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3945debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3946is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3947send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3948reqired (if any).
3949
3950 * New Readline
3951
3952GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3953is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3954required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3955
3956 * Bugs fixed
3957
3958The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3959Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3960See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3961
3962 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3963
3964GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3965supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3966symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3967
3968Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3969mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3970debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3971mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3972version 2.
3973
3974Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3975really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3976line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3977variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3978situation somewhat.
3979
3980When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3981However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3982methods.
3983
3984We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3985DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3986encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3987
3988
3989*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3990
3991 * Improved configuration
3992
3993Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3994Porting BFD is simpler.
3995
3996 * Stepping improved
3997
3998The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3999of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4000in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4001function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4002
4003 * Bug fixing
4004
4005Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4006
4007 * New host supported (not target)
4008
4009Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4010
4011
4012*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4013
4014 * Multiple source language support
4015
4016GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4017It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4018and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4019language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4020You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4021`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4022
4023 * GDB and Modula-2
4024
4025GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4026currently under development at the State University of New York at
4027Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4028continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4029
4030Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4031debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4032symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4033
4034There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4035in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4036
4037 * set write on/off
4038
4039GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4040a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4041the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4042by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4043effect immediately.
4044
4045 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4046
4047When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4048shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4049The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4050examining core files.
4051
4052 * set listsize
4053
4054You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4055The default is 10.
4056
4057 * New machines supported (host and target)
4058
4059SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4060Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4061Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4062
4063 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4064
4065IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4066
4067 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4068
4069AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4070AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4071Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4072
4073 * New remote interfaces
4074
4075AMD 29000 Adapt
4076AMD 29000 Minimon
4077
4078
4079*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4080
4081 * New Facilities
4082
4083Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4084
4085Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4086target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4087is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4088remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4089remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4090also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4091using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4092stub on the target system.
4093
4094New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4095
4096GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4097library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4098object file types such as a.out and coff.
4099
4100There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4101refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4102
4103
4104 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4105
4106All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4107by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4108
4109For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4110``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4111Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4112
4113What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4114print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4115will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4116all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4117
4118confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4119 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4120 it is already running. Default is ON.
4121
4122editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4123 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4124 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4125 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4126 Default is ON.
4127
4128history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4129 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4130 or the value of the environment variable
4131 GDBHISTFILE.
4132
4133history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4134 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4135 HISTSIZE.
4136
4137history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4138 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4139 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4140
4141history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4142 history expansion will be performed on
4143 command line input. The default is OFF.
4144
4145radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4146 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4147 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4148
4149height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4150 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4151 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4152 variable TERM.
4153
4154width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4155 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4156 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4157 variable TERM.
4158
4159Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4160``set width'' instead.
4161
4162print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4163 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4164 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4165 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4166
4167print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4168 is OFF.
4169
4170print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4171 "raw" form if off.
4172
4173print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4174 like instructions.
4175
4176print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4177
4178
4179 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4180
4181The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4182new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4183are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4184window.
4185
4186
4187 * Support for Shared Libraries
4188
4189GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4190Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4191before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4192happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4193At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4194from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4195shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4196It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4197
4198sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4199 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4200 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4201
4202info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4203
4204
4205 * Watchpoints
4206
4207A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4208expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4209tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4210quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4211problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4212more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4213
4214watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4215
4216info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4217
4218delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4219disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4220enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4221
4222
4223 * C++ multiple inheritance
4224
4225When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4226for C++ programs.
4227
4228 * C++ exception handling
4229
4230Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4231ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4232the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4233handler's context).
4234
4235catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4236 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4237 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4238
4239info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4240 current stack frame.
4241
4242
4243 * Minor command changes
4244
4245The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4246command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4247is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4248
4249The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4250at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4251frames without printing.
4252
4253 * New directory command
4254
4255'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4256The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4257about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4258with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4259find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4260
4261 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4262
4263For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4264for more details.
4265
4266GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4267two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4268Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4269where the program that you are debugging will run.