1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.0:
6 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
8 * New native configurations
10 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
11 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
15 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
17 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
18 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
19 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
20 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
21 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
24 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
25 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
27 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
28 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
29 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
32 * REMOVED configurations
34 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
37 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
42 * All MIPS configurations are multi-arched.
44 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
48 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
50 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
52 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
54 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
55 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
56 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
57 greater level of detail.
59 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
61 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
62 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
63 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
66 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
68 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
69 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
70 machines ``out of the box''.
72 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
73 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
74 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
75 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
76 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
78 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
79 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
80 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
81 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
82 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
84 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
85 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
88 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
91 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
92 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
93 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
94 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
96 * New native configurations
98 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
99 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
103 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
104 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
105 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
106 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
108 * OBSOLETE configurations
110 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
111 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
113 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
116 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
117 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
118 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
119 be permanently REMOVED.
121 * Gould support removed
123 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
125 * New features for SVR4
127 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
128 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
129 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
131 * Many C++ enhancements
133 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
134 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
136 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
138 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
139 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
140 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
141 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
143 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
144 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
146 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
148 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
149 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
150 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
152 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
153 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
155 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
157 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
158 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
159 include ``set remote P-packet''.
161 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
163 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
164 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
165 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
167 * ``apropos'' command added.
169 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
170 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
171 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
175 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
176 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
177 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
178 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
179 enabled by configuring with:
181 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
183 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
185 * New native configurations
187 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
188 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
189 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
193 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
194 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
195 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
197 * OBSOLETE configurations
199 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
201 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
202 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
203 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
204 be permanently REMOVED.
208 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
209 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
210 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
211 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
212 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
213 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
214 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
219 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
221 * set extension-language
223 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
224 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
225 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
226 set extension-language .c c++
227 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
228 and their associated languages.
230 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
232 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
233 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
234 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
238 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
239 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
241 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
242 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
244 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
245 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
246 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
247 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
248 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
249 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
250 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
251 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
253 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
254 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
255 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
256 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
260 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
261 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
262 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
263 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
264 for xdb and dbx commands.
268 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
269 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
270 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
272 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
273 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
274 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
276 * Debugging across forks
278 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
283 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
284 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
285 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
287 * GDB remote protocol additions
289 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
290 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
291 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
292 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
294 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
295 full 64-bit address. The command
297 set remoteaddresssize 32
299 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
300 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
303 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
304 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
306 maint packet heythere
308 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
309 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
312 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
313 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
314 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
316 * Tracing can collect general expressions
318 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
319 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
320 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
322 * mask-address variable for Mips
324 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
325 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
326 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
328 * Higher serial baud rates
330 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
331 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
332 to achieve all of these rates.)
336 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
337 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
340 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
342 * New native configurations
344 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
345 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
346 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
347 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
348 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
349 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
350 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
354 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
355 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
356 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
357 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
358 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
359 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
360 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
361 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
362 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
363 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
364 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
366 * New debugging protocols
368 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
369 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
370 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
371 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
372 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
373 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
377 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
378 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
383 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
384 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
386 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
388 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
389 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
390 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
392 * Live range splitting
394 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
395 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
396 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
400 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
401 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
405 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
406 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
407 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
412 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
417 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
418 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
419 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
420 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
421 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
422 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
426 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
427 the symbol at the specified address.
431 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
432 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
433 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
434 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
435 file tracepoint.c for more details.
439 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
440 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
441 of most MIPS variants.
445 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
446 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
447 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
451 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
452 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
453 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
454 the possible architectures.
456 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
458 * New native configurations
460 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
461 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
462 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
463 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
464 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
465 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
469 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
470 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
471 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
472 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
473 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
475 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
479 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
480 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
481 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
482 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
483 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
487 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
489 * Windows 95/NT native
491 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
492 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
493 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
494 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
495 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
497 * dont-repeat command
499 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
500 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
501 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
502 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
504 * Send break instead of ^C
506 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
507 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
508 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
510 * Remote protocol timeout
512 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
513 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
514 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
516 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
518 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
519 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
520 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
521 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
522 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
524 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
525 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
526 automatically on hpux10.
528 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
530 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
532 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
534 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
535 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
536 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
537 every character. The default value is 1050.
539 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
541 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
542 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
543 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
544 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
545 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
546 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
548 * Speedups for remote debugging
550 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
551 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
552 and more efficient S-record downloading.
554 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
556 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
557 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
559 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
563 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
564 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
566 * Remote targets use caching
568 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
569 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
570 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
571 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
572 off' turns the the data cache off.
574 * Remote targets may have threads
576 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
577 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
578 gdb/remote.c for details.
582 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
583 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
584 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
585 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
586 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
587 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
588 sequence is something like
590 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
592 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
596 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
597 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
598 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
599 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
600 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
601 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
602 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
603 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
607 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
608 but does simplify configuration and building.
612 GDB now supports hpux10.
614 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
616 * New native configurations
618 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
619 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
620 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
621 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
625 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
626 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
627 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
628 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
631 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
633 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
634 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
635 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
636 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
637 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
639 * Arguments to user-defined commands
641 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
642 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
645 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
647 To execute the command use:
650 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
651 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
652 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
654 * New `if' and `while' commands
656 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
657 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
658 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
659 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
660 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
661 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
662 if the expression is zero.
664 * Fortran source language mode
666 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
667 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
668 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
669 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
672 * Better HPUX support
674 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
675 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
676 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
677 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
678 that behavior do the following before running the program:
684 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
685 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
691 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
692 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
695 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
696 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
698 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
700 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
701 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
702 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
703 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
704 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
705 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
707 * New DOS host serial code
709 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
710 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
713 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
715 * New "complete" command
717 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
718 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
720 * Trailing space optional in prompt
722 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
723 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
725 * Breakpoint hit counts
727 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
728 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
729 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
730 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
731 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
734 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
736 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
737 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
738 arrays actually contain only short strings.
740 * Shared library breakpoints
742 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
743 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
745 * Hardware watchpoints
747 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
748 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
750 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
754 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
755 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
757 * Improved Irix 5 support
759 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
761 * Improved HPPA support
763 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
765 * New native configurations
767 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
768 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
769 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
770 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
774 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
775 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
778 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
780 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
781 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
785 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
786 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
788 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
790 * Irix 5 is now supported
794 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
795 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
796 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
797 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
798 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
801 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
803 * User visible changes:
807 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
808 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
809 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
810 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
811 debugging info for the mips target).
813 * DEC Alpha native support
815 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
816 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
817 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
818 Alpha-specific notes.
820 * Preliminary thread implementation
822 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
824 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
826 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
827 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
830 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
832 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
833 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
834 call methods, ...etc.
836 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
838 * User visible changes:
840 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
841 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
842 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
843 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
845 Filename completion now works.
847 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
848 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
849 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
851 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
852 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
853 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
854 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
855 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
859 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
860 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
863 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
867 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
868 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
869 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
873 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
874 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
875 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
876 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
877 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
881 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
882 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
883 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
885 * New targets supported
887 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
888 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
889 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
890 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
891 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
893 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
894 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
895 GO32 memory extender.
897 * New remote protocols
899 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
901 * New source languages supported
903 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
904 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
905 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
908 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
910 * HP Precision Architecture supported
912 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
913 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
914 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
915 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
916 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
917 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
919 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
921 * Faster and better demangling
923 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
924 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
925 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
926 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
927 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
928 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
931 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
932 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
933 compiler does not actually implement.
935 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
937 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
938 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
939 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
940 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
941 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
942 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
945 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
946 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
948 * Improved configure script
950 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
951 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
952 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
953 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
955 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
956 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
957 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
958 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
959 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
960 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
962 * Documentation improvements
964 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
965 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
966 before submitting changes.
968 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
969 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
970 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
971 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
972 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
974 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
975 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
976 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
977 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
978 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
983 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
984 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
985 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
988 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
989 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
991 * New native hosts supported
993 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
994 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
996 * New targets supported
998 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1000 * New file formats supported
1002 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1003 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1007 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1009 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1010 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1012 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1013 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1014 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1016 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1017 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1019 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1020 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1021 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1024 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1025 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1026 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1027 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1028 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1030 * Internal improvements
1032 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1033 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1035 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1036 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1037 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1038 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1039 shared code that handles any of them.
1041 * New command line options
1043 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1047 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1048 General Public License.
1050 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1052 * Host/native/target split
1054 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1055 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1056 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1057 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1058 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1060 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1061 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1062 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1063 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1064 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1065 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1066 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1068 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1069 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1070 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1072 * New hosts supported
1074 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1075 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1076 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1078 * New targets supported
1080 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1081 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1083 * New native hosts supported
1085 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1086 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1087 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1089 * New file formats supported
1091 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1092 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1093 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1097 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1098 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1099 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1101 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1103 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1104 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1105 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1106 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1110 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1111 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1112 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1114 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1118 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1119 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1122 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1123 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1125 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1126 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1127 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1128 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1129 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1130 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1132 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1133 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1134 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1135 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1139 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1140 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1141 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1142 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1143 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1145 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1146 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1147 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1148 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1152 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1153 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1154 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1155 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1156 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1157 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1158 each instruction being stepped through.
1160 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1161 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1163 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1164 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1165 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1166 processor with a serial port.
1170 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1171 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1172 supported, and what files each one uses.
1176 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1177 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1178 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1179 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1181 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1182 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1183 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1184 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1188 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1189 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1190 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1191 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1192 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1193 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1195 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1198 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1200 * Better support for C++ function names
1202 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1203 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1204 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1205 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1206 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1208 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1209 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1210 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1211 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1212 for the list of formats.
1214 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1216 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1217 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1218 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1219 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1220 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1221 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1224 * New 'maintenance' command
1226 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1227 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1228 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1230 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1231 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1232 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1233 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1234 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1235 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1237 The following commands are new:
1239 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1240 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1241 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1243 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1245 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1246 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1247 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1248 read after argv processing.
1250 * New hosts supported
1252 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1254 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1256 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1257 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1258 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1259 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1260 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1263 * New targets supported
1265 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1267 * More smarts about finding #include files
1269 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1270 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1271 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1272 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1273 the one that contains your sources.
1275 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1276 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1277 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1279 * Interesting infernals change
1281 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1282 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1283 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1284 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1286 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1288 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1289 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1290 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1292 See the ChangeLog for details.
1294 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1296 * New machines supported (host and target)
1298 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1300 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1302 * New malloc package
1304 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1305 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1306 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1307 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1308 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1309 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1313 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1314 'help info proc' for details.
1316 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1318 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1319 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1322 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1324 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1325 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1326 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1327 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1328 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1329 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1331 * Cross byte order fixes
1333 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1334 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1336 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1338 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1339 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1340 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1341 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1342 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1343 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1344 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1345 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1346 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1347 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1349 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1350 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1351 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1352 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1354 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1355 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1356 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1359 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1361 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1362 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1363 shared across multiple host platforms.
1365 * longjmp() handling
1367 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1368 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1369 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1370 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1374 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1375 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1380 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1381 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1382 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1384 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1386 * New machines supported (host and target)
1388 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1390 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1391 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1393 * New machines supported (target)
1395 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1399 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1400 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1401 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1403 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1404 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1405 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1406 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1407 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1410 * New features for SVR4
1412 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1413 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1414 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1416 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1417 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1418 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1420 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1421 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1423 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1425 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1426 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1427 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1428 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1429 same code linked statically.
1433 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1434 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1435 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1436 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1437 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1438 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1442 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1443 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1444 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1447 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1449 * New machines supported (host and target)
1451 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1452 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1453 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1455 * Almost SCO Unix support
1457 We had hoped to support:
1458 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1459 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1460 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1461 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1463 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1465 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1466 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1467 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1468 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1473 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1474 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1475 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1479 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1480 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1481 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1483 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1485 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1486 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1487 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1489 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1490 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1491 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1492 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1495 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1496 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1497 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1498 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1501 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1502 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1505 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1506 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1507 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1510 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1512 * Improved configuration
1514 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1515 Porting BFD is simpler.
1519 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1520 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1521 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1522 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1526 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1528 * New host supported (not target)
1530 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1533 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1535 * Multiple source language support
1537 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1538 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1539 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1540 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1541 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1542 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1546 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1547 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1548 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1549 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1551 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1552 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1553 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1555 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1556 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1560 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1561 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1562 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1563 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1566 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1568 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1569 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1570 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1571 examining core files.
1575 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1578 * New machines supported (host and target)
1580 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1581 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1582 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1584 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1586 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1588 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1590 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1591 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1592 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1594 * New remote interfaces
1600 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1604 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1606 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1607 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1608 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1609 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1610 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1611 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1612 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1613 stub on the target system.
1615 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1617 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1618 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1619 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1621 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1622 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1625 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1627 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1628 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1630 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1631 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1632 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1634 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1635 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1636 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1637 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1639 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1640 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1641 it is already running. Default is ON.
1643 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1644 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1645 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1646 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1649 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1650 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1651 or the value of the environment variable
1654 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1655 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1658 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1659 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1660 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1662 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1663 history expansion will be performed on
1664 command line input. The default is OFF.
1666 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1667 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1668 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1670 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1671 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1672 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1675 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1676 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1677 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1680 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1681 ``set width'' instead.
1683 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1684 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1685 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1686 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1688 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1691 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1694 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1697 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1700 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1702 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1703 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1704 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1708 * Support for Shared Libraries
1710 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1711 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1712 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1713 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1714 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1715 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1716 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1717 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1719 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1720 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1721 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1723 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1728 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1729 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1730 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1731 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1732 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1733 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1735 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1737 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1739 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1740 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1741 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1744 * C++ multiple inheritance
1746 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1749 * C++ exception handling
1751 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1752 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1753 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1756 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1757 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1758 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1760 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1761 current stack frame.
1764 * Minor command changes
1766 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1767 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1768 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1770 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1771 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1772 frames without printing.
1774 * New directory command
1776 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1777 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1778 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1779 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1780 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1782 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1784 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1787 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1788 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1789 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1790 where the program that you are debugging will run.